Met Police investigating allegations against Walliams

London's Metropolitan Police has launched an investigation into a series of alleged "serious" sex offences against television personality David Walliams.

The force said it has received a number of non-recent allegations against the former Britain's Got Talent judge "in recent days".

In a statement this afternoon, the Met said the complaints made are separate from those previously reported by ITV News and The Guardian.

But it added those reports are being reviewed by officers "to establish whether there is any evidence of offences".

The best-selling author was recently named as the man accused of sexual misconduct and abusing his power to groom teenagers as young as 15 after temporary reporting restrictions were lifted.

Mr Walliams denies any wrongdoing.

Commenting on the allegations police had received, Detective Superintendent Mike Cagney, whose team is leading the investigation, said: "We would encourage anyone who has been the victim of a sexual offence to come forward and speak to us, no matter when it happened.

"We know reporting allegations of this nature can be daunting but specialist officers are on hand to provide support, answer questions and guide you through the process."

The Met is yet to confirm how many alleged offences have been reported or what Mr Walliams has been accused of.

Police have also not confirmed when or where the incidents are alleged to have taken place.

Mr Walliams has not yet responded to Tuesday's reports in The Guardian or ITV News.

In a letter understood to have been sent several months ago to journalists working on the investigations, the television personality denied being a "sexual predator".

He said he recognised he "behaved thoughtlessly" at times, and regretted not taking people's feelings "properly into account", but insisted he had not broken the law.

Tuesday's reports about Walliams followed his unsuccessful attempts to seek an injunction to prevent the media revealing his identity - with his lawyers arguing there was a risk he would take his own life after two previous suicide attempts.

Judge Nicklin refused the bid for an injunction, ruling it would be an "exceptionally serious interference" with freedom of expression.

Several sources alleged inappropriate behaviour towards women at the prime-time show BGT, where Mr Walliams served as a judge from 2012 to 2022, and at his publisher HarperCollins, which dropped him last year.

The allegations led to Mr Walliams also being dropped by his literary agency, Independent Talent Group, while the BBC started to remove his programmes, including Little Britain, from iPlayer, and his Labour Party membership was suspended.