Warning: This article contains disturbing and sexually explicit language. Please read at your own discretion.
Actor Timothy Hutton has been accused of raping a 14-year-old girl in 1983, according to a report published by BuzzFeed News.
A Canadian woman named Sera Johnston (who now goes by the name Lauren) claims that she and two friends were invited by The Haunting of Hill House actor and his male friends to come back to a hotel room and “party” in 1983 in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Hutton, who was 23 at the time, was in town to shoot the movie, Iceman.
Johnston said that after getting to the hotel room, there was drinking and she immediately felt uncomfortable. She said she was eventually lead to a bedroom by Hutton and one of his friends.
She said that Hutton allegedly raped her while his friend watched and the friend also attempted to force her to perform oral sex.
According to the report, Johnston said Hutton took off his clothes, got on top of her and thrust himself inside her.
She said that she began to beg: “Please, don’t do this. I can’t do it. I can’t.” Johnston also told BuzzFeed News that Hutton told her that she would like it — and that his friend was going to watch.
Johnston said his friend tried putting his penis into her mouth and “got it in a couple of times.” She said her mouth was “full of train-track braces and rubber bands” and she started to cry.
Johnston, now 50, filed a criminal complaint against Hutton with the Vancouver Police Department last November.
When she was with previous legal representation, Johnston did go into mediation with Hutton’s team and her rep pursued $1.5 million in restitution. She was offered $135,000 but declined to complete the paperwork for the settlement when she found out it would include a denial of any wrongdoing from the actor.
She said she didn’t come forward until after the #MeToo movement because she didn’t think anyone would believe her.
Hutton, 59, denied the allegations to the outlet and said that he never met Johnston, calling her story “fabricated.”
His lawyer said that Hutton “will not spend one more minute dignifying these allegations as they are patently false and designed only to extort money from him.”
He says that Johnston has “provided salacious, heinous, and graphic details of this made-up sexual encounter that supposedly occurred 36 years ago. Although these were disgusting details any smut fiction writer could conjure up.”
Hutton’s lawyer says there is no evidence to support Johnston’s allegations and her story contains “patently false, scurrilous and defamatory statements.”
The Playing God actor has hired two law firms and three spokespeople and his representatives provided BuzzFeed News with an “extensive array of information, including a 91-page letter meant to discredit Johnston.”
The outlet also interviewed multiple family members, friends and people connected to Johnston who say she shared the story of the alleged rape various times over the years.
A friend that was with Johnston at the hotel that night spoke to the outlet on the condition of anonymity. She confirmed the presence of Hutton and his friends in a hotel room with three minors. The third girl declined to speak to media.
Hutton’s lawyers called the previous offer of $135,000 “a nuisance settlement and should be a strong indicator of how the credibility of Ms. Johnston and her fictitious claim was perceived at the mediation by all in attendance.”
According to The Wrap, the Fox series Almost Family, which Hutton stars in, was cancelled after one season. The decision reportedly came just hours after the BuzzFeed News story was published.
If you or someone you know is experiencing abuse or is involved in an abusive situation, please visit the Canadian Resource Centre for Victims of Crime for help. They are also reachable toll-free at 1-877-232-2610.