Police investigate Armie Hammer over alleged sexual assault as woman publicly accuses actor of rape and abuse

Woman identified as Effie alleges Hammer ‘violently raped [her] for over four hours’ in 2017

A woman has publicly accused actor Armie Hammer of raping and abusing her, as the Los Angeles Police Department confirms it’s investigating the actor as part of a probe into alleged sexual assault.

The woman, identified as Effie, spoke out on Thursday during a press conference with her attorney Gloria Allred.

“On 24 April 2017, Armie Hammer violently raped me for over four hours in Los Angeles, during which he repeatedly slammed my head against a wall, bruising my face,” Effie alleged in a statement sent to The Independent, which she read during Thursday’s press conference. “He also committed other acts of violence against me to which I did not consent.”

She added: “During those four hours, I tried to get away but he wouldn’t let me. I thought that he was going to kill me. He then left with no concern for my well-being.”

Effie’s full legal name was not given during Thursday’s press conference. Allred specified that the woman is now 24 years old and lives in Europe.

Hammer denied the allegations through his attorney on Thursday.

“From day one, Mr Hammer has maintained that all of his interactions with [the woman] — and every other sexual partner of his for that matter — have been completely consensual, discussed and agreed upon in advance, and mutually participatory,” Hammer’s lawyer told The Independent in part in a statement.

Also on Thursday, the LAPD confirmed to The Independent that Hammer “is the named suspect in an alleged sexual assault investigation, initiated on 3 February 2021”. The Independent has contacted his attorney for comment about the probe.

Effie alleged that she and Hammer met on Facebook in 2016, when she was 20 years old.

“I fell in love with him instantly. The relationship progressed rapidly and the emotions from both sides became really intense,” she said in her statement.

“Looking back, it is now clear to me he was employing manipulation tactics in order to exert control over me, until I started to lose myself. He would often test my devotion to him, slyly removing and crossing my boundaries, as he became increasingly more violent.

“He abused me mentally, emotionally, and sexually.”

Effie said the alleged abuse “traumatised me to the point where for months, I was unable to stop crying, I couldn’t sleep or I’d have night terrors, I was constantly emotionally distressed and lost interest in living”.

In his statement to The Independent, Hammer’s attorney Andrew Brettler said that Effie’s “own correspondence with Mr Hammer undermines and refutes her outrageous allegations”.

“It was never Mr Hammer’s intention to embarrass or expose [the woman]’s fetishes or kinky sexual desires, but she has now escalated this matter to another level by hiring a civil lawyer to host a public press conference,” Brettler added. “With the truth on his side, Mr Hammer welcomes the opportunity to set the record straight.”

Effie said in her statement that she hopes Hammer will be “held accountable” and that her testimony will help others.

In a statement of her own, Allred said “it is important to emphasise that even if a sexual partner agrees to certain sexual activity, she still has a right at any point to withdraw her consent”.

“If she does withdraw her consent and asks her partner to stop for any reason, he is legally and morally obligated to stop. If he does not stop, he is then at risk of committing a crime against her,” Allred added.

“In addition, a sexual partner needs to be aware of the nature and the scope of the consent that is given. Even if a partner consents to some sexual acts, that does not mean that there is consent to any and all sexual conduct with her.”

Allegations against Hammer surfaced earlier this year. He was dropped by his reps in February.