After the scandal, the about-face.
Model Ashley Morgan Smithline, who in 2021 accused rocker Marilyn Manson of assaulting and raping her in her sleep, returned to her allegations this week.
In a statement sent to the Los Angeles County Court on Thursday, the person concerned revealed that she had made
"false statements"
to the courts about the acts of violence and the non-consensual sexual act of which she had accused the singer.
Ashley Morgan Smithline, who had a brief relationship with Marilyn Manson in 2010, said she was manipulated by other victims of the singer, such as actress Evan Rachel Wood, over meetings organized between former partners who "survived" the artist.
The model claims to have originally had no history of aggression to reveal and that she was more or less manipulated by the group.
"Mrs.
Wood pointed out to me that it wasn't because I didn't remember that it hadn't happened
,” Ashley Morgan Smithline said in her statement.
“I was told that I may be remembering what happened wrong, that I was repressing my memories, which they say
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Pressures, constraints, threats
Faced with repeated pressure from the victims, Ashley Morgan Smithline claims to have ended up convincing herself that she too had experienced attacks similar to what these women had experienced.
She reveals the case on her Instagram account, in February 2021, then files a complaint in June, after having been, according to her statement on Thursday, strongly encouraged by her lawyer to carry out a media tour.
This will lead her to make the front page of
People
magazine in May 2021. Marilyn Manson
"brainwashed me, and it disgusts me,"
she said at the time.
In addition to sexual assault, Ashley Morgan Smithline notably accused the rocker of having scarified her.
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So many allegations that Ashley Morgan Smithline now withdraws, in the wake of the filing without follow-up to her complaint, in January.
The model had indeed failed to inform the Los Angeles court in time of what she intended to do following the sudden withdrawal of her lawyer.
A spokesperson for Evan Rachel Wood reacted to Ashley Morgan Smithline's revelations, saying the actress
"never pressured Ashley or manipulated her"
, and that she must have been intimidated by a wave of threats and harassment.
In total, fifteen women publicly accuse the rocker.
Five of them have filed a complaint, the last person having come forward in front of the New York justice system in January.
Marilyn Manson has filed a defamation suit against Evan Rachel Wood.
The actress, who dated the musician from 2006 to 2010, accused him of rape in her documentary
Phoenix Rising
.
