Marilyn Manson faces fourth sexual assault lawsuit, filed by Ashley Morgan Smithline

Content warning: this article discusses rape and sexual assault.

Marilyn Manson is facing a fourth sexual assault lawsuit, this one filed by model Ashley Morgan Smithline.

Smithline had previously detailed her allegations against the singer – real name Brian Warner – in a May interview with People, claiming he raped her, cut her and locked her in a glass, soundproofed room.

“He kept telling me, ‘You can’t rape someone that you’re in love with’,” Smithline told People.

“There’s a difference between waking up to someone having sex with you nicely in the morning and waking up tied up with someone having sex with your unconscious body, being tied up and screaming and not enjoying it, and him laughing, like, sadistically, or gagging my mouth or something.”

In the new lawsuit, filed in California and reported by Rolling Stone, Smithline is seeking damages for “sexual assault, sexual battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, unlawful imprisonment, violations of the Bane Act, and/or violations of the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act”.

Specifically, Smithline alleges Warner “developed an obsession with [her]” after he made contact in 2010, “telling her that she ‘was the perfect girl for him’” and demanding she frequently send him pictures of herself”. She allegedly continued to visit Manson up until 2013 due to the “severe mental duress” Warner inflicted upon her, claiming he would “find her” and “kill her if she left him”.

At one point after they entered into a consensual sexual relationship, Smithline alleged she awoke to find her wrists and ankles were bound and Warner was penetrating her.

“Ms. Smithline told Mr. Warner to stop and said no multiple times, and Mr. Warner told her to ‘shut the fuck up’ and ‘be quiet’. Mr. Warner also squeezed Ms. Smithline’s ribs, causing bruising and pain whenever she breathed that lasted for a week, as well as additional injuries to her vagina,” the suit alleges.

In a separate incident, Smithline alleges Warner choked and forced her onto his bed. He then allegedly took a knife and cut her shoulder, inner arm, and shoulder, drawing blood and causing her to go into shock.

Elsewhere throughout the lawsuit, Smithline claims Warner bit her, threw a “Nazi knife” at her – Smithline is Jewish – burned her, branded her, and whipped her and posted photos of the bruises online.

“Ms. Smithline deals with complex post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder, and panic attacks as a result. The scars left from Mr. Warner’s knife cuts are a daily reminder of the torment Ms. Smithline endured and survived,” the suit alleges.

A representative for Warner told Rolling Stone the singer “strongly denies” the claims made in Smithline’s lawsuit.

“There are so many falsehoods within her claims that we wouldn’t know where to begin to answer them. This relationship, to the limited extent it was a relationship, lasted less than a week in 2010. Manson hasn’t seen Ms. Smithline since then,” a representative said.

NME has contacted Warner’s team for comment.

Manson is currently facing similar lawsuits from Game of Thrones actor Esme Bianco, his former assistant Ashley Walters and an anonymous ex-girlfriend only identified as Jane Doe. Manson has repeatedly denied all charges against him.

Last month, Warner said he would turn himself in for an unrelated arrest warrant for two counts of Class A misdemeanour simple assault. The counts related to a 2019 incident in which he is alleged to have spat at and shot snot at a photographer during a live show in New Hampshire.