David Walliams, one of Britain’s best-known television personalities and top-selling children’s authors, has been accused by multiple women of using his power and celebrity status to prey on young women and teenagers for sex.

The allegations include accounts from two women who said they first met the star when they were 15 years old.

Both women, now in their 30s, said they had been groomed by Walliams and that the experience had affected them for nearly two decades.

Walliams, 55, has also been accused of abusing his position to pursue women through the family television show Britain’s Got Talent (BGT) and at his former children’s book publisher HarperCollins, where he had a sexual relationship with a junior member of staff.

The allegations were unearthed in a joint investigation by the Guardian and ITV News that heard from 30 sources with first-hand accounts of his conduct.

Details of the allegations can finally be revealed after a court rejected a legal attempt by Walliams aimed at preventing…