Evan Rachel Wood denies pressurising Marilyn Manson’s accuser Ashley Morgan Smithline
Evan Rachel Wood has made the claim that she did not pressurise Ashley Morgan Smithline, the accuser of Marilyn Manson, after Smithline retracted her statement earlier in February. Wood declared at the Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday that she had no previous contact with Smithline before a “meeting of survivors” on a HBO documentary Phoenix Rising.
According to a report by The Hollywood Reporter, Wood said: “I had not met her, I had not communicated with her, and I did not know who she was” before Smithline commented on a social media post of Wood’s discussing the abuse she was the victims of at the hands of Manson.
Wood continued: “I never pressured or manipulated Ashley Morgan Smithline to make any accusations against Plaintiff Brian Warner, and I certainly never pressured or manipulated her to make accusations that were not true. It was Ms. Smithline who first contacted me in March 2019.”
Smithline had said that she was “manipulated” by Wood in her own LA Superior Court Case while accusing Manson of such abuse. “I succumbed to pressure from Evan Rachel Wood and her associates to make accusations of rape and assault against [Manson] that were not true,” she said.
She then admitted to having had a “brief consensual sexual relationship with Brian Warner” back in 2010 while taking back her initial allegations of sexual assault, sexual battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, human trafficking and unlawful imprisonment.
It looks as though Wood has vehemently denied such pressure toward Smithline, even though Smithline told the court, “I can’t breathe. I have no reason to make this up! It hurts to see how thoughtless people can be.” The case, which includes screenshots of private Instagram messages between Wood and Smithline, such as an exchange in which Wood accuses Manson of abuse, looks likely to roll on for some time.
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