Jonathan Barnett Lawsuit: CAA, Dismissal, and London Inquiry

The Jonathan Barnett lawsuit is a civil complaint filed in July 2025 by a woman using the pseudonym “Jane Doe,” accusing the British football super-agent of sex trafficking, rape, and torture over a six-year period, and naming Creative Artists Agency and CAA Stellar as co-defendants. A U.S. federal judge dismissed the case in May 2026 on forum non conveniens grounds, allowing the plaintiff to refile in England. Barnett denies every allegation, and a separate criminal investigation by London’s Metropolitan Police remains open.¹²

Who Jonathan Barnett Is

Barnett, 75, co-founded the Stellar Group in 1994 and built it into one of the largest football agencies in the world, representing Gareth Bale, Jack Grealish, Jordan Pickford, Ashley Cole, and Saúl Ñíguez, among others. He brokered Bale’s £86 million transfer from Tottenham to Real Madrid in 2013, then a world-record fee.³⁴²

What the Lawsuit Alleged

The complaint was filed on July 2, 2025, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. According to the filing, Doe and Barnett first met in the mid-1990s and reconnected in 2017 after he contacted her on LinkedIn. She alleges he persuaded her to move from Australia to London with her children by promising to pay for housing and school fees, then trafficked her to the UK and held her as what the complaint describes as a “sex slave” from 2017 to 2023.⁵⁶

The specific allegations are severe. The complaint states that Barnett raped the plaintiff more than 39 times and subjected her to acts of torture, including being tied up overnight without food or water, being kicked repeatedly, being forced to call him “My Master,” and being made to find other women for him. It also alleges he threatened her life and the lives of her minor children to keep her under his control.²

Why CAA Was Named

The suit does not confine itself to Barnett. It alleges that CAA and its employees helped keep the plaintiff confined by arranging her accommodation and making payments to her between 2017 and 2023, and that the accounting firm BSG Valentine guaranteed her apartment leases. The complaint also alleges Barnett sent emails from his work account referring to her as “slave,” and that CAA and ICM “willfully or recklessly disregarded” substantial, unexplained payments the agency made to her during that period.⁶

Barnett’s and CAA’s Responses

Barnett, through his lawyers, denied every allegation. He said in a statement that the claims “have no basis in reality and are untrue” and that he would “vigorously defend this lawsuit.”⁷ In later filings, he acknowledged a “consensual personal relationship” with the plaintiff from June 2017 until September 2021 and confirmed paying her “well in excess of £1,000,000” after it ended, characterizing those payments as a response to what he described as her threats to publicly disclose the affair unless he paid her.³

CAA also denied the allegations and any prior knowledge of the claimed abuse. A spokesperson said the plaintiff had no business connection to the firm and that CAA first learned of the allegations in January 2024, when it received settlement demands; Barnett left the following month.⁶ In its motion to dismiss, CAA argued that Barnett’s alleged conduct had “nothing to do with the business” and that the agency could not be held vicariously liable for acts outside the scope of his employment. It also disputed the claim that it had ignored “obvious red flags.”⁸

Why the Case Was Dismissed

On May 15, 2026, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California dismissed the case on forum non conveniens grounds. The court found that English courts offer an “adequate alternative forum” and that the balance of interests favored a trial in the United Kingdom, where the alleged conduct primarily occurred.¹

The dismissal is not the end of the claims. The court conditioned it on Barnett and CAA waiving any challenges to personal jurisdiction in English courts and waiving any statute of limitations defenses that matured after the July 2, 2025, filing date. On May 19, 2026, both defendants filed confirmations that they had agreed to those conditions. The plaintiff can now refile her civil claims in England without facing those objections.¹

The London Criminal Investigation

Running alongside the civil case, the Metropolitan Police opened a criminal investigation based on a report filed in March 2024. The allegations under investigation involve rape and torture said to have occurred in Kensington, Chelsea, and Westminster between July 2017 and September 2021.⁹

Barnett was arrested at Heathrow Airport on March 29, 2025, on suspicion of rape and causing grievous bodily harm, and was released on bail. As of November 2025, his lawyers confirmed a criminal charge had been filed against him in London in 2024 and that the investigation was still pending. The Metropolitan Police said “enquiries into the circumstances continue.” Barnett continues to deny all allegations.³

1
Yahoo News. Jonathan Barnett Torture Rape Case
2
BBC News. Jonathan Barnett Lawsuit
3
The Athletic. Jonathan Barnett Rape Investigation in UK
4
The Athletic. Agency CAA ICM Merger
5
Los Angeles Times. Woman Accuses Former CAA Stellar Executive Chairman of Sex Trafficking
6
The Guardian. Jonathan Barnett Football Agent Accused of Trafficking, Torture, Rape
7
Yahoo News. Gareth Bale Former Agent Denies Allegations
8
Law360. CAA Says It’s Not Liable in Sex Slave Suit Against Star Agent
9
Evening Standard. Met Police Football Agent Jonathan Barnett Rape Torture