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Vince McMahon and WWE accused of permitting ‘rampant’ sexual abuse of younger boys in lawsuittheinsiderinsight

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Vince McMahon and the WWE have been accused in a brand new lawsuit of understanding about and permitting the “rampant and open” sexual abuse of younger boys by ringside announcer Melvin Phillips Jr.

Phillips, who labored for the wrestling group all through the Nineteen Seventies, Eighties and into the early Nineteen Nineties, died in 2012.

The go well with, which has been seen by The Impartial, was filed in Baltimore County on behalf of 5 nameless alleged victims recognized solely as John Does. It names McMahon, the WWE and its guardian firm TKO Holdings among the many defendants.

In accordance with the lawsuit, Phillips used his place to rent boys as younger as 12 or 13 to help the ring crew in making ready for WWE exhibits. Nonetheless, per the go well with, “Phillips’ actual motivation in luring the Ring Boys with the promise of entry to the favored WWE occasions was to sexually abuse them.”

The go well with goes on to assert that McMahon knew about Phillips’s actions, quoting him as saying within the Eighties that the announcer had a “peculiar and unnatural curiosity” in younger boys.

The go well with additionally alleges that at some venues, the defendants supplied Phillips with a personal dressing room “the place he would use his personal costly video digital camera (extraordinarily uncommon on the time) to movie his sexual escapades with the kids.”

WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon talking at a information convention in Las Vegas in 2014 (Ethan Miller/Getty Photos)

Vince McMahon’s legal professional, Jessica Rosenberg, advised The Impartial in an announcement: “Greater than 30 years in the past, the columnist Phil Mushnick tried to make headlines with these similar false claims. These allegations have been by no means confirmed and finally grew to become the topic of a defamation lawsuit towards Mr Mushnick.

“The negligence claims towards Mr. McMahon that have been asserted immediately depend on these similar absurd, defamatory and completely meritless statements by Mr Mushnick. We’ll vigorously defend Mr McMahon and are assured the courtroom will discover that these claims are unfaithful and unfounded.”

In a separate assertion to The Impartial, Greg Gutzler, a companion at legislation agency DiCello Levitt, which is main the litigation, stated: “Because of the bravery of our purchasers, we lastly have an opportunity to carry accountable those that allowed and enabled the open, rampant sexual abuse of those younger boys.

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“That so many have been conscious of the sexual abuse of the Ring Boys and did nothing to stop or cease it’s merely unconscionable.”

Mark DiCello, founding companion of DiCello Levitt, added: “The WWE and McMahons had a accountability to those underaged boys, and so they failed them within the worst method attainable. We’ll vigorously struggle to uncover the reality about this systemic, insidious, and life-altering abuse.

“We commend our purchasers for his or her bravery in coming ahead and promise to relentlessly search justice for them.”

Final month, McMahon was the topic of the Netflix docuseries Mr McMahon which included a number of extra accusations of misconduct, together with allegations of sexual assault and trafficking former worker Janel Grant. McMahon has claimed he was “misrepresented” by the collection.

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