Women accuse actor Jared Leto of criminal sexual misconduct
· UPIJuly 29 (UPI) -- In a new BBC documentary, four women accused actor Jared Leto of criminal sexual misconduct that took place when they were teenagers.
Leto, however, strongly denied the allegations, Deadline reported Wednesday.
In the documentary, Jared Leto: Hollywood's Dark Secret, 10 women talked about meeting Leto between 2002 and 2016. The Oscar-award-winning actor is now 54.
BBC News said it has tallied more than 120 separate allegations made online in regard to Leto's behavior with women, "some of them historical." Four of the women made allegations of behavior that would have broken the law in the United States or Britain, Deadline reported.
"I have never sexually assaulted anyone in my entire life," Leto said Wednesday in a statement. "These claims are absolutely and categorically false."
The BBC said it corroborated many of the accounts with the accusers' family and friends, who heard about the encounters at the time they happened. Reporters also said they saw pictures and messages supporting accounts in some cases.
The allegations include those from a woman who said she was sexually assaulted by Leto in 2002 in Las Vegas. Another said she had sex with the actor in 2006 when she was 17, which would be statutory rape in California, where it happened.
Another said Leto made sexual phone calls to them when they were 16, while a fourth said Leto made a sexual threat in 2013.
Other allegations included "strange and often very sexual phone calls" from Leto to young women, the BBC said.
Two men who worked with Thirty Seconds to Mars, Leto's band, for years told the BBC that staff felt uncomfortable with the way Leto interacted with teenage girls.
Last year, Allie Teilz, a Los Angeles DJ, said Leto assaulted her when she was 17, leading to other women speaking up with similar claims.
Jared Leto: Award-winning roles, music and fashion
Actor and cast member Jared Leto arrives at the November 16, 2004 Los Angeles premiere of "Alexander" at Grauman's Chinese Theatre. He starred as Hephaestion in the film. Photo by Francis Specker/UPI | License Photo