Jonathan Barnett is desperately trying to avoid a conviction in US courts, but now faces the same persecution in the UK. London’s Metropolitan Police are investigating legendary former football manager Jonathan Barnett for sexual abuse, accused in the United States of raping a woman 39 times and treating her like a “sex slave” in July.
Barnett, who was one of the most powerful agents in the world and managed, among others, the transfer of Gareth Bale from Tottenham Hotspur to Real Madrid, was accused in California last summer, along with several employees of his agency Creative Artists Agency, of having “forcibly trafficked” a woman from Australia to the United Kingdom in 2017 and of “torturing and holding her against her will”, as well as raping her on 39 occasions.
The former agent, who denied the accusations, is now also under investigation by the British justice system after this woman, called “Jane Doe” in the documents protecting her identity, reported him in London.
The events traced by the British police would have occurred between July 2017 and September 2021 in the London neighborhoods of Chelsea, Kensington and Westminster.
Barnett placed himself in the hands of a legal team led by Marty Singer, an attorney who has handled many high-profile cases in Hollywood.
Barnett’s lawyers are attempting to have the complaint dismissed in the United States, as they argue that all contact between the victim and the former agent occurred on British soil.
“All personal meetings, exchanges and communications between me and the plaintiff took place exclusively in London. All hotels, apartments and other places where we met during our relationship were in London,” Barnett claims through his lawyers.
The complaint filed by the appellant tells of how she and Barnett met in the 1990s, through a professional athlete, and how they reconnected through social networks in 2017.
Within a few weeks she moved to the UK with her teenage son. All expenses were covered through the former agent’s company.
“My teacher”
The lawsuit alleges that Barnett asked her to address him at all times as “my master” and that she “never complained that it hurt” during their sexual encounters. According to her account, she was forced to drink urine or ingest feces, and spent entire nights tied hand and foot without the possibility of eating or drinking.
As documented by the ex-officer’s lawyers, from June 2017 to September 2021, this woman and Barnett were involved in a “consensual and personal relationship” and at the end of it he paid the woman more than a million pounds.
“When my relationship with the plaintiff ended around September 2021, she threatened to reveal this publicly unless I paid her large sums of money. As a result of these threats, I paid the plaintiff for several years, ultimately paying her a sum well in excess of £1 million,” Barnett said through his legal representatives.
The actor claims the first time the former agent raped her was in a London hotel in 2017. As well as Bale, Barnett represented players such as Ashley Cole, Jack Grealish and Jordan Pickford.
