Met Police open criminal investigation into David Walliams over alleged sexual offences

The Metropolitan Police have launched a criminal investigation into David Walliams, 55, over alleged serious sexual offences, The Guardian reported. Walliams has denied any wrongdoing, denied being a sexual predator and denied breaking the law. He has not been arrested and is in a medical facility.

The Met said the allegations it is investigating are separate from those reported by the Guardian and ITV. Detectives are nonetheless reviewing that reporting for evidence of offences. The force said that in recent days it had received a number of allegations of non-recent serious sexual offences, meaning offences reported long after they are alleged to have happened, involving a man now in his 50s.

The new allegations are understood to have come from several people, with some dating back to the 2000s. At least some of the complainants gave initial accounts this week to detectives from the Met's specialist crime division. The investigation is being led by the force's complex sexual offences unit, a specialist team that handles serious cases of this kind.

The Guardian and ITV News reported the allegations against Walliams only after a court rejected a legal attempt aimed at preventing publication. The Guardian's reporting includes accounts from two women who said they first met Walliams when they were 15 years old.