The leading football agent Jonathan Barnett is being sued in an American court over allegations of human trafficking, torture and rape.
In a civil complaint filed in a California district court it is alleged that Barnett “trafficked” the woman from Australia to the UK in 2017, “tortured” her for six years by keeping her as a “sex slave” and sexually assaulted her, including by rape, more than 39 times, as well as making “repeated threats to her life and the lives of her minor children”.
Barnett’s former employer, the Hollywood talent group Creative Artists Agency, faces allegations in the same complaint that it “used its employees and emissaries to assist Barnett in keeping” the complainant as his “sex slave”.
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Barnett and CAA deny all the allegations. “The claims made in [the] complaint against me have no basis in reality and are untrue,” Barnett said in a statement through his lawyers. “We will vigorously defend this lawsuit through the appropriate legal process. I am looking forward to being entirely vindicated and exonerated.”
Barnett was a leading sports agent for more than three decades before he retired last year. The 75-year-old is best known for brokering Gareth Bale’s world record £85.3m transfer from Tottenham to Real Madrid in 2013 but has also represented a host of other top players, including Jack Grealish and Ivan Toney.
In the complaint an anonymous woman referred to as Jane Doe alleges that Barnett “owned her” as a “sex slave” for six years, subjecting her to alleged violent and abusive behaviour that was covered up by his employers.
“This is a case about institutional abuse at the highest level,” the complaint reads. “This case is about how one of the world’s most powerful men in sports openly kept a sex slave for years, with the assistance of his employees, accountants, emissaries and family members, and used his money and power to maintain coercive control over her and keep her in fear for her life and the lives of her children.”
The complaint says CAA “knew or should have known” that he was “keeping a sex slave”. CAA said it first learned of the allegations in January 2024 and Barnett left the company the following month. The company strongly denies any prior knowledge of the complaints against him.
“While the complaint attempts to connect these allegations to CAA’s business, Ms Doe has never been an employee, consultant, or contractor of CAA, ICM, or Stellar, nor has she ever had any business connection to CAA, ICM, or Stellar,” it said in a statement.
In the complaint Doe says she first met Barnett in the mid-90s through a friend before reconnecting in 2017 when he sent her a private message on LinkedIn saying “something to the effect of, ‘Nice pic’.” It says they arranged to meet soon after when she was visiting the UK from her home in Australia, and she claims that he urged her to move with her teenage children to London to work for him, offering to pay for her accommodation and school fees for her two children.
After moving to London, Doe alleges, Barnett raped her in their first meeting at a central London hotel, telling her that he “owned” her and would kill her if she reported him.
“Barnett told Ms Doe that she was not allowed to speak or look at him, that he ‘owned’ her and she was now his slave, and she ‘owed him’ for the opportunity he was giving her,” the complaint says. “Barnett further told Ms Doe that, moving forward, she was to refer to him as ‘my Master’ and that she would be killed, and her children disadvantaged, if she ever spoke out. Through a series of threatening and brute force actions, Barnett then proceeded to rape Ms Doe.
“… Realizing she was powerless against a dangerous predator, Ms Doe submitted to Barnett in order to avoid being severely beaten or even killed.”
The complaint goes on to detail further alleged abusive behaviour by Barnett, including tying her up overnight without food or water, forcing her to lick his shoes, demanding explicit videos and on one occasion kicking her in the ribs 50 times, which caused her to faint.
It is also claimed that Barnett forced his victim to find other “slaves” for him, and would beat her if she refused or failed.
The complaint also alleges that CAA were complicit by helping to arrange her accommodation and making substantial payments to her between 2017 and 2023.
“To control Ms Doe’s residency in the UK, as well as her dependence on him for housing, Barnett paid for and guaranteed the apartment leases where he kept her,” it says. “Barnett signed for the flats in his official capacity as chair of CAA Stellar. CAA Stellar’s accounting firm, BSG Valentine, guaranteed the Ms Doe’s leases [sic]. Barnett used finances to control Ms Doe and prolong his exploitation of her.”
Barnett formed the Stellar Group in 1992, with the former West Indies cricketer Brian Lara among its first clients, before selling it to the Hollywood talent agency ICM Partners in 2020. ICM was later swallowed by its larger rival CAA, in a deal completed in 2022 that brought together two of the world’s biggest agencies.
Barnett and CAA have 20 days to respond to the allegations by filing to the court.
