The Guardian UK 'Me Too' Report... Minor Victims Also
Copperfield Fully Denies "Inappropriate Behavior"
David Copperfield, the magician famous for making the Statue of Liberty disappear, has been accused of sexually assaulting 16 women, including minors, over a period of 30 years.
On the 16th (local time), the British newspaper The Guardian reported that 16 women, including models who appeared on Copperfield's magic stage, were sexually assaulted by him from the late 1980s to 2018. Among the victims were minors, and some claimed that Copperfield secretly drugged them and committed sexual crimes.
One woman, who said she first met Copperfield when she was 15, revealed that he sent her gifts and groomed her (a crime involving sexual conversations or acts to sexually exploit children and adolescents). Three other women claimed that Copperfield groped their bodies on stage during his magic shows.
Copperfield's side denied all these allegations. His lawyer stated, "He has never behaved inappropriately toward anyone, let alone minors." However, this is not the first time Copperfield has faced sexual assault allegations. His name also appeared in documents related to billionaire Jeffrey Epstein's trial on the sexual exploitation of minors. Earlier, in 2018, he was accused of raping a teenage female model 30 years ago. Brittany Lewis, a former model, claimed that in September 1988, in a hotel room in California, USA, Copperfield used a drug to incapacitate her and sexually assaulted her. Lewis was 17 years old at the time.
At that time, Copperfield also asserted his innocence. He said, "I support the Me Too movement," and added, "I have been falsely accused." Copperfield faced court in 2007 over sexual assault charges but was ultimately acquitted by the court.
Born David Seth Kotkin in 1956, Copperfield is 67 years old this year. His stage name, Copperfield, is taken from the novel of the same name by Charles Dickens. Having worked as a magician since the 1970s, he gained fame in 1983 for making the Statue of Liberty disappear in front of an audience. He later performed magic acts passing through Niagara Falls and the Great Wall of China, capturing worldwide attention.
In 2016, Copperfield ranked 5th among "20 American celebrities who earned money through fame," selected by Forbes. At that time, his fortune was $850 million. The top four were film directors George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, broadcaster Oprah Winfrey, and basketball player Michael Jordan.
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