British actor Jack Edwards accuses ex-APA agent of sexual assault in criminal complaint
London police are investigating a criminal complaint against former Hollywood agent Tyler Grasham that alleges he sexually assaulted a 15-year-old boy there in 2010.
Jack Edwards, now 23, initiated the investigation when he filed a complaint with London’s Metropolitan Police on Monday. Edwards had previously alleged in an interview and statement provided to the Los Angeles Times that Grasham, then an agent with Beverly Hills-based Agency for the Performing Arts, or APA, had ordered him several alcoholic drinks and given him a pill to swallow before fondling the teenager in a London hotel room.
On Thursday, the Metropolitan Police confirmed that the department had received the “allegation of sexual assault,” and were investigating it.
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The Times reported last Friday that at least nine young men, most of them actors, had accused the agent of sexually assaulting or harassing them in incidents spanning the last decade. Edwards is the third accuser known to have filed a criminal complaint against Grasham since last month.
APA fired Grasham, who had spent more than a decade as an agent there, on Oct. 20, after the first few accusers went public. Grasham has not yet made any public statement in response to the allegations, and did not immediately respond to a phone message from a reporter Thursday seeking comment on the London police investigation.
In a statement, an APA spokesperson said that the agency’s “primary concern is — and always has been — the safety and security of our clients and employees, and we will fully cooperate with the authorities as they conduct their investigation.”
Edwards provided what he said was a copy of the report he filed with the Metropolitan Police. The report largely mirrors the statement he had previously provided to The Times, describing Grasham — who was in London with another actor client — buying drinks for Edwards before they ended up in the agent’s room at the Sanderson Hotel in London’s SoHo area. There, Edwards alleged in the police report, Grasham gave him a pill to calm his anxieties, “and the rest of the evening was a blur.”
“I remember his wandering hands exploring my genitals and not having the courage or physical strength to move him,” Edwards alleged of Grasham in the report.
Edwards said that he left the hotel room “feeling confused and dirty.”
He told The Times that after filing the report online, he was interviewed in person by police Wednesday. Edwards said he planned to forward the report to the Los Angeles Police Department, which is investigating the other two known criminal complaints filed against Grasham.
A 20-year-old actor and a 27-year-old film editor each recently filed sexual assault complaints against Grasham with the LAPD, which has said it is investigating the allegations.
Twitter: @ggarciaroberts
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