Adam Fradgley – AMA/West Bromwich Albion FC by way of Getty PicturesExcessive-profile British sports activities agent Jonathan Barnett has been accused of raping a girl greater than 39 instances, in a US lawsuit.
In a civil grievance lodged at a US district courtroom in Los Angeles, the unnamed lady, known as “Jane Doe”, says Mr Barnett “trafficked” her from Australia to the UK in 2017, “tortured” and saved her as a “intercourse slave” over a six yr interval.
She says Mr Barnett made “repeated threats to her life and the lives of her minor youngsters”.
The 75-year-old identified for representing main footballers together with Gareth Bale and Jack Grealish, says the costs “haven’t any foundation in actuality and are unfaithful”.
“We’ll vigorously defend this lawsuit via the suitable authorized course of. I’m wanting ahead to being fully vindicated and exonerated,” an announcement from his attorneys mentioned.
Mr Barnett was ranked because the world’s strongest sports activities agent in 2019 by Forbes journal.
He co-founded London-based sports activities company Stellar Group in 1994, ultimately promoting it to Hollywood expertise company ICM Companions in 2020. ICM was later purchased by bigger rival CAA in a deal that merged two of the world’s greatest businesses.
The civil case in opposition to Mr Barnett, filed on Wednesday, makes use of the title CAA Stellar all through to check with his sports activities company.
In response to courtroom paperwork, the pair first met within the Nineties via knowledgeable athlete in London and reconnected on-line after which in particular person in 2017.
Inside a matter of weeks she relocated to the UK along with her teenage youngsters – with sports activities company CAA Stellar, headed by Mr Barnett, overlaying shifting bills.
The submitting says that upon her arrival, he informed her he “owned” her and raped her in a lodge room.
Mr Barnett went on to impose strict guidelines to obey him always, referring to him as “My Grasp” and to “by no means say it hurts”, in response to the lawsuit.
The grievance goes on to explain alleged degrading acts that included ingesting urine or ingesting faeces.
The alleged torture additionally included the lady “tied up in a single day with out meals or water”.
She says she was “trafficked, threatened, tortured, and held” in bondage in numerous areas all through the world, together with Los Angeles, from 2017 to 2023.
“Realising she was powerless in opposition to a harmful predator, Ms Doe submitted to Barnett with a purpose to keep away from being severely crushed and even killed,” the lawsuit mentioned.
“Jane Doe” can be suing Hollywood expertise agency Inventive Artists Company and sports activities company CAA Stellar, the place Mr Barnett was government chairman till his retirement final yr.
The courtroom paperwork state the CAA Stellar’s father or mother firms, expertise businesses ICM and CAA, “failed to seek out and/or willfully or recklessly disregarded” that substantial funds had been made between 2017 and 2023, regardless of the lady not being an athlete or agent.
It’s claimed Mr Barnett referred to her as “slave” in emails despatched from his work account.
Court docket paperwork say Mr Barnett used his “cash and energy to keep up coercive management” over the lady who was “in concern of her life and the lives of her youngsters”.
Attorneys for “Jane Doe” state the case is about “institutional abuse on the highest stage”.
They’re looking for compensation on her behalf.
CAA mentioned it first heard of the lady’s allegations in January 2024 when her attorneys made settlement calls for – and the press inquired.
“Whereas the grievance makes an attempt to attach these allegations to CAA’s enterprise, Ms Doe has by no means been an worker, guide, or contractor of CAA, ICM, or Stellar, nor has she ever had any enterprise connection to CAA, ICM, or Stellar,” CAA mentioned in its assertion.
“CAA takes any allegations of this nature severely, and thru counsel, promptly urged Ms Doe to contact regulation enforcement in the UK.”
The assertion added that Mr Barnett “exited” Stellar in February 2024.
