A fifth person has come forward accusing former Elmo voice actor Kevin Clash of inappropriate sexual conduct with a minor...
From The Daily Mail
Sesame Street puppeteer Kevin Clash is facing a fifth lawsuit from a young man alleging sexual abuse.
Kevin Kiadii was just 16 when he alleges that the so-called voice of Elmo ‘groomed and co-erced him into sexual contact’, including full penetration, at his Manhattan home.
Speaking exclusively to MailOnline, Mr Kiadii’s attorney Jeff Herman revealed his intention to file the suit. He said: ‘By standing up now my client is standing up for his 16-year-old self. He wasn’t able to consent. He was a compliant victim and today he feels totally preyed upon and taken advantage of.’
In the lawsuit, filed today, 52-year-old Clash is characterized as a man who showed one face to the public, that of affable children’s entertainer, ‘while at the same time he was, in secret, preying on teenage boys to satisfy his depraved sexual interests'.
Speaking for the first time, Mr Kiadii, now a 25-year-old make-up artist, has alleged that Clash's particular fetish was 'to play the role of father'.
He claimed that the star was unfazed by his own admission that he was just 16 years old and that Clash in turn lied and claimed to be 28.
When Mr Kiadii met Clash the Sesame Street performer was actually 43.
According to his lawyer, Mr Kiadii was 'a young boy exploring his sexuality - not looking for sex but for friends and understanding on gay chat lines'.
It was on one such chatline that the two met back in 2004.
After speaking for more than an hour, Mr Kiadii alleged that Clash offered to send a limousine to collect the boy from his Brooklyn home and bring him to his Upper West Side apartment.
Mr Kiadii said: ‘When I arrived at his apartment I was flabbergasted by how beautiful everything was. He met me with a hug and was very affectionate and everything was very lavish.'
He continued: ‘He liked to play games. I would say his fetish is that he likes to play the role of the father. He wants you to feel real comfortable.’
The make-up artist is aware that his decision to file a suit will make him a target for criticism.
He said: 'I know there will be people who say I’m greedy but it’s not about that. It’s not really about the lawsuit or the money it’s about wanting people to hear my story.
‘When I was 16 I had all that arrogance, I didn’t think. Now I have a niece and nephew of my own I see things differently.
‘I would go to his [Clash’s] apartment in the Upper West Side and the doorman would buzz me up at all hours.
‘I look young now and I’m sure I looked a lot younger than my years then. I’m pretty sure I wasn’t the first underage boy to go up there. I just feel like everyone was in on it.’
Mr Kiadii said he never encountered drugs in his meetings with Clash and that after their first night together he saw him a further four or five times over a month.
Then one day Clash allegedly invited him to his apartment but family commitments made it impossible. ‘I said I couldn’t make it,’ Mr Kiadii said. ‘He said okay never mind and I never heard from him again.’
According to Mr Kiadii, suddenly all the gifts that the older star had lavished upon him – music, flowers and chocolates – dried up.
‘When suddenly I never heard from him I felt worthless,’ he said. ‘I felt like nothing.’
