Marilyn Manson's accusers detail his alleged abuse. 'He's so much worse than his persona'
LOS ANGELES — For three decades, goth rock singer Marilyn Manson reveled in his image as the ultimate pop-culture villain.
In a U.S. District Court in downtown Los Angeles, the British-born actor Esmé Bianco is waging a legal battle to prove that his menacing persona was all too real.
Bianco's federal suit, filed April 30, alleges sexual assault, sexual battery and human trafficking beginning in February 2009, when Manson flew her to L.A. to shoot a video for his song "I Want to Kill You Like They Do in the Movies."
The video never materialized. Instead, the 39-year-old says that, over the course of four days, Manson locked her in a room, beat her with a whip and shocked her with electricity in his frigid home in Los Angeles.
Although the two established a sexual relationship later that year, the "Game of Thrones" star alleges in her lawsuit that she tolerated a number of abuses, including forced labor, sleep deprivation and rape, after Manson offered to help secure a U.S. work visa, then threatened to obstruct the process when she didn't meet his demands.
Manson, whose legal name is Brian Hugh Warner, has said the claims are "horrible distortions of reality." His attorney, John Snow, petitioned to dismiss the case at a hearing in August, arguing that Bianco's claims had expired under California's statutes of limitations for domestic violence and sexual assault.
In 2018, California's statutes of limitations for civil actions were extended from three to 10 years after the last alleged act of sexual assault. The new law allows victims to pursue claims up to three years after "the plaintiff (discovers) that an injury or illness resulted from an act." Judge Fernando L. Aenlle-Rocha allowed the case to move forward, saying the alleged misconduct could fall within the statutes of limitations.
"A reasonable jury could find that the effects of Warner's alleged unconscionable acts, including the perceived threat to Plaintiff's safety, immigration status, and career, persisted years after her last contact with Warner," Aenlle-Rocha ruled in October.
Bianco's suit, the furthest along among four civil suits pending against Manson, could take years to resolve. But it has already changed how the world sees the artist.
"People pass it off as
