David Walliams denies grooming allegations as Met Police urges anyone affected to come forward

David Walliams has denied allegations that he used his celebrity status to sexually prey on teenage girls and young women, and to harass women in the workplace. The claims come from a three-year joint investigation by ITV News and The Guardian. It was published after Walliams failed to block it with a High Court injunction. He says he is not a sexual predator and has not broken the law.

The investigation, and an ITV documentary called David Walliams' Power and Silence, includes accounts from multiple women. One woman, identified as Jade in ITV and Sky coverage and as Alex by the BBC, says Walliams contacted her on social media in 2007, when she was 15 and he was 36. She alleges he sexually assaulted her at his house. Walliams strongly denies any sexual contact with her and rejects any allegation of criminal activity.

Another woman says she met Walliams at a fan event when she was 15 and he was 32. She alleges that at 17 she went to his house and had sex with him, and that she believes she was groomed because of the power imbalance between them. Lawyers for Walliams deny grooming. They say he believed she was 18 and is mortified that a brief consensual relationship caused her sadness.

The investigation also includes workplace allegations. Walliams is accused of inappropriate conduct and sexual harassment while he was a judge on Britain's Got Talent and at his former publisher HarperCollins. The BBC reported that HarperCollins dropped him last year after an inquiry into his behaviour towards staff, including an allegation that he sent inappropriate messages to a younger employee. He denies all the allegations.

The BBC reported allegations that Walliams offered Britain's Got Talent tickets to encourage 18-year-olds to meet him and later stay at his home when he was 44. He denied any sexual contact. In a statement, Walliams said that looking back he had at times behaved thoughtlessly towards people he had casual sexual relationships with, and did not always take their feelings into account. He said a power imbalance is inevitable when one party is famous, but abusing that power is something else and something he never did. He said he was devastated that some women had expressed hurt or anger towards him.

Walliams tried to stop publication through the High Court. His lawyers argued that he was a risk of taking his own life after two previous suicide attempts. The injunction failed, opening the way for the investigation to be published.

BBC Two's Newsnight broadcast an interview with Lily Cratemore. She said Walliams first contacted her after she appeared in a Little Britain recording when she was 18 and he was 31, and that he sent a handwritten note to her mother's address. She described feeling pressured to share a bed with him when she stayed at his home. Lawyers for Walliams denied grooming or inappropriate behaviour and said gifts and offers to help came with no expectations.

Sky News interviewed the comedian Lucy Beaumont. She said a young TV worker had confided in her about being asked to take young, vulnerable working-class girls to Walliams's dressing room. She said there was no proper process in television for raising such concerns and that she had contacted the Guardian.

GB News reported that Jonathan Ross had released a statement saying he was horrified by the revelations about Walliams and the crimes of Russell Brand. Ross said he had been unaware of their conduct while on friendly terms with both men. He also addressed a 2004 Comedy Awards joke about Walliams going home with a 15-year-old, saying it was tasteless and would not be made today. GB News reported that the Met Police had called for anyone affected by the allegations to come forward, and that the BBC said it was processing some programmes, including Little Britain. GB News also reported that Walliams had been dropped by his literary agency.