More shades of grey: an update on the Neil Gaiman allegations
On two different podcasts, three more women have come forward accusing Neil Gaiman of sexual grooming, violation, coercion and misconduct
On July 3, Tortoise Media published Master, a four-part podcast investigating allegations of sexual assault against Neil Gaiman, which I wrote about here. Three weeks later, another woman came forward — this time on a different podcast called Am I Broken. Hosted by licensed clinical mental health counsellor Papillon DeBoer, the podcast provides a space for survivors of sexual assault to share their stories. A woman using the pseudonym Claire had spoken to Papillon a few years ago about her experience with Neil Gaiman, but ultimately decided against sharing her story on the podcast in 2022. She had reached out to Gaiman at that time expressing her disappointment in how he had behaved ten years earlier. On a phone call, Gaiman had apologised and promised to make a “hefty donation” to a rape crisis agency. Claire accepted his claim that he had made a genuine one-off mistake and was deterred from going further with it.
After hearing the Tortoise podcast last month, Claire reached out to Papillon again. She had always said that if others came forward, she would join them. She now knew that Gaiman had lied to her, and was ready to share her story.
The allegations detailed in the initial Tortoise investigation were extremely disturbing, but I found Claire’s account on Am I Broken even harder to listen to. The podcast included an earlier session with a different therapist that Claire had recorded, where she talked about her experience of being groomed and sexually violated by Gaiman. It was recorded in 2019, seven years after the assault, but when Claire breaks down while telling her story, you can hear just how deeply traumatised she still is by what transpired. I’ve heard this kind of anguish too many times before, and it’s what makes me so passionate about working with survivors. At its worst, it’s the rawest, most excruciating pain I’ve ever witnessed first-hand. That serial predators are able to inflict this kind of life-changing trauma again and again without consequence makes me furious.
To summarise Claire’s story in a nutshell:
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