Neil Gaiman asks US court to dismiss lawsuit alleging rape and sexual assault

Neil Gaiman has asked a US district court to throw out a civil lawsuit accusing him of rape and sexual assault, filed last month by a woman who previously worked for the author and his former partner, Amanda Palmer.

The motion to dismiss, filed on Tuesday, argued that the case should be heard in New Zealand, where the alleged abuse took place, rather than in the US.

In an accompanying statement, Gaiman said that Scarlett Pavlovich, the former nanny to the couple who filed the suit on 3 February, “is a fantasist who has fabricated a tale of abuse”.

Gaiman pointed to screenshots of WhatsApp messages between himself and Pavlovich – compiled in a package along with the motion to dismiss – which the author said “demonstrate, in Pavlovich’s own words, that our relationship was consensual”.

In the lawsuit, Pavlovich claims the abuse began the first day she worked for Gaiman and Palmer on 4 February 2022, when Gaiman suggested that she take a bath in the garden and allegedly sexually assaulted her.

“At no point did Pavlovich say or do anything that led me to believe that she was not a willing participant in the activities,” said Gaiman. His lawyers argue that messages sent by Pavlovich the next morning “demonstrate as much”. The screenshot of one message reads: “Thank you for a lovely lovely night ~ wow x”.

His lawyers also point to messages in which Pavlovich appears to say that the sexual relationship was consensual. When Gaiman confronted Pavlovich after hearing from Palmer that Pavlovich alleged he abused her, Pavlovich responded “Oh my God. Neil! I never said that … Rape? WHAT? This is the first I have heard of this.” In another message two days later, Pavlovich writes: “It was consensual – how many times do I have to fucking tell everyone.”

However, in an episode of the Tortoise podcast in which allegations against Gaiman were first revealed, Pavlovich said that the messages “are really hard for me to go through because of, you know, my delusion. I’m so furious with myself”.

In Tuesday’s supporting brief, Gaiman’s lawyers write that Pavlovich’s claims are a “sham”, and that the suits are the “culmination” of Pavlovich’s “plan to maximise adverse publicity” against the author. “In no uncertain terms, Pavlovich’s accusations are false. The sexual scenarios she describes deliberately in graphic detail are invented.”

Nine women have now accused Gaiman of sexual misconduct, eight of whom were interviewed for a New York Magazine piece published on 13 January. The following day, Gaiman published a statement on his website stating that he had “never engaged in non-consensual sexual activity with anyone. Ever.”

Pavlovich filed her lawsuit to district courts in Wisconsin, New York and Massachusetts; Gaiman filed the motion to dismiss in Wisconsin. Along with the allegations against Gaiman himself, the lawsuit accuses Palmer of human trafficking and negligence – claims which Palmer denied last month.

In November 2022, Palmer and Gaiman announced that they had decided to divorce. In a statement made in January this year, Palmer said that she was unable to comment on the allegations against Gaiman because of custody and divorce proceedings, but a representative told NME that she “is profoundly disturbed” by the allegations against him.

Pavlovich did not respond to a Guardian request for comment made through her lawyers.