Former sports super-agent accused of repeated rape and torture

One of the world’s former leading sports agents has been accused of raping a woman 39 times and keeping her as a “sex slave”, according to a civil complaint filed in a California district court.

British agent Jonathan Barnett, who retired last year, is alleged to have “trafficked” the woman from Australia to the UK in 2017, with Barnett’s former employer, the Creative Artists Agency (CAA), accused of having “used its employees and emissaries to assist Barnett”.

The complaint goes on to accuse Barnett of having “tortured” the woman, referred to as Jane Doe, as well as sexually assaulting her – including raping her more than 39 times, and making “repeated threats to her life and the lives of her minor children”.

Barnett and CAA have strongly denied the allegations. The former super-agent said, in a statement through his lawyers: “The claims made… against me have no basis in reality and are untrue. We will vigorously defend this lawsuit through the appropriate legal process. I am looking forward to being entirely vindicated and exonerated.”

CAA said: “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. CAA takes any allegations of this nature seriously, and through counsel, promptly urged Ms Doe to contact law enforcement in the United Kingdom.”

Barnett, based in north London, was named the world’s most powerful sports agent in 2019 by Forbes magazine, having brokered over $1 billion in active contracts. He formed the Stellar Group agency in 1992, selling it to Hollywood agency ICM in 2020. In 2022, ICM was itself taken over by CAA.

The court documents claim that Barnett met the woman in London in 1990s, and reconnected in 2017 after he messaged her on social media. The documents allege that the woman moved to the UK shortly afterwards with her two children, and that the move was paid for by the company Barnett headed, CAA Stellar. It was there, according to the allegations filed, that Barnett raped the woman in a central London hotel. The submission claimed that the agent referred to her as a “slave” and demanded that she refer to him as ‘my master’ and to ‘never say it hurts’.

Acts the document alleges took place include tying the woman up overnight without food or water, as well drinking urine and ingesting faeces. The woman says that she was “trafficked, threatened, tortured, and held” in bondage in different locations throughout the world between 2017 and 2023.