Timothy Hutton (Ordinary People, The Haunting of Hill House) has issued a strongly-worded denial in response to a report that he raped a 14-year-old woman in a resort room again in 1983.
BuzzFeed News revealed a report on Monday detailing Canadian mannequin Sera Johnston’s account of an assault she alleges occurred when she was 14. Johnston reportedly filed a legal criticism in opposition to Hutton with the Vancouver Police Division final 12 months, accusing Hutton of raping her whereas he was in Vancouver to movie the film Iceman. Based on Johnston’s account, she and two associates had been invited to Hutton’s resort room the place she was then raped by Hutton and sexually assaulted by one in all his associates. Now 50 years outdated, Johnston says she by no means got here ahead prior to now as a result of she didn’t assume anybody would consider her.
In a press release to TV Information, Hutton responded to the BuzzFeed report with an official denial, calling the allegations a “failed extortion try.”
“For the previous two-and-a-half years, I’ve been the goal of a number of extortion makes an attempt by a lady named Sera Dale Johnston to extract tens of millions of {dollars} from me. She threatened that if I didn’t meet her calls for, she would go to the press with a false allegation that I sexually assaulted her 37 years in the past in Canada. I by no means assaulted Ms. Johnston,” Hutton stated in a press release. “In the present day, BuzzFeed selected to publish Ms. Johnston’s false story. BuzzFeed knew the reality as a result of they had been supplied with documented proof. What’s actually happening right here is that Ms. Johnston’s extortion makes an attempt failed. She then determined to comply with by way of on her risk to go to the press together with her false story. After I grew to become conscious of this, I went to the FBI, signed a sworn assertion, and filed a legal criticism in opposition to Ms. Johnston for extortion. I can’t cease combating to reveal this story for what it’s – a failed extortion try primarily based on one thing that by no means occurred.”
Hutton’s lawyer, Tom Clare, plans to ship BuzzFeed a authorized retraction demand and is threatening a defamation go well with in opposition to the publication.
BuzzFeed‘s report consists of graphic particulars from Johnston, together with accusations that Hutton and one other man undressed her, that Hutton raped her, and that the opposite man compelled oral intercourse. BuzzFeed spoke with one other teenage woman who was with Johnston that evening who corroborated a lot of her story. BuzzFeed additionally interviewed 5 individuals who individually confirmed that Johnston had informed them in regards to the alleged rape, together with her mom, in addition to a pal she talked to just a few days after the incident. Johnston stated she by no means pursued justice beforehand as a result of till the #MeToo motion, she assumed no person would take her phrase over an Oscar-winning actor’s.
Hutton most lately starred within the controversial Fox drama Almost Family, in regards to the offspring of a fertility physician (Hutton) who used his personal semen to impregnate sufferers with out their data or consent. Almost Family was canceled Monday. Fox declined to touch upon the allegations in opposition to Hutton.
Hutton is subsequent slated to seem in FX’s adaptation of the Y: The Last Man comics. FX didn’t instantly return TV Information’s request for remark.