A U.S. District Court Judge has allowed Game of Thrones actress Esmé Bianco’s lawsuit against Marilyn Manson to proceed.
As reported by Deadline, Manson’s legal team attempted to get Bianco’s suit thrown out on grounds of statute of limitations, but a judge rejected that and is allowing the case to move forward.
“A reasonable jury could find that the effects of Warner’s alleged unconscionable acts, including the perceived threat to Plantiff’s safety, immigration status, and career, persisted years after her last contact with Warner,” the judge wrote. They ordered that Marilyn Manson, whose real name is Brian Warner, must provide a formal answer to each of the claims made in Bianco’s suit within 14 days.
“My hope is that this ruling empowers other survivors to pursue justice for themselves while signaling to abusers that they cannot bully victims into silence,” Bianco said in a statement.
Manson’s former manager Tony Ciulla was also named as a defendant in the initial complaint from Bianco, but was dropped in July.
After accusing the shock rocker of sexual and psychological abuse back in February, Bianco announced in April that she was moving to sue Manson for sexual battery and sexual assault. A complaint filed via the United States District Court for the Central District of California alleged that Manson violated human trafficking laws, with Bianco saying she was brought to the U.S. from London to act for an “I Want to Kill You Like They Do in the Movies” music video that never happened, plus a never-made horror film called Phantasmagoria. She also accused Manson of performing sexual acts without her consent.
“For far too long my abuser has been left unchecked, enabled by money, fame and an industry that turned a blind eye,” Esmé Bianco wrote in a statement shared on Twitter. Her hope in coming forward was that it could potentially “stop Brian Warner from shattering any more lives and empower other victims to seek their own small measure of justice.”
