A woman from New Zealand has filed three civil lawsuits against best-selling British author Neil Gaiman and his ex-wife Amanda Palmer, accusing Gaiman of repeatedly sexually assaulting her while she was working as the couple’s babysitter and nanny.
Scarlett Pavlovich filed the lawsuits in federal court in Wisconsin, Massachusetts and New York on Monday (Feb 3). She identified herself in an interview with New York Magazine, which published an article in January detailing allegations of assault, abuse and coercion levelled by eight women.
Pavlovich alleges in the lawsuits that she was homeless and living on a beach when she met Palmer in Auckland, New Zealand, in 2020. Pavlovich was 22 years old at the time.
According to the lawsuits, Gaiman’s then-wife, Amanda Palmer, invited Pavlovich to the couple’s home on Waiheke Island. Pavlovich began running errands for the couple, babysitting their son and helping with chores, eventually becoming the couple’s nanny.
Gaiman first sexually assaulted her the night they met in February 2022, according to the lawsuits. The assaults continued but she kept working for the couple because she was broke and homeless and Gaiman had told her he would help her writing career, according to the lawsuits.
When she told Palmer about the assaults, Palmer told her that more than a dozen women had told her in the past that Gaiman had sexually abused them, according to the lawsuits.
The assaults didn’t stop until Pavlovich told Palmer she was going to kill herself, the lawsuits said. She left the family and became homeless again, although the documents say Gaiman eventually paid her for her work caring for the couple’s child and helped cover her rent for a few months.
Palmer knew of Gaiman’s sexual desires and presented Pavalovich to him knowing he would assault her, according the lawsuits. Pavlovich alleges Gaiman and Palmer violated federal human trafficking prohibitions and seeks at least US$7 million in damages.
