Micheal Ward has been charged with rape in the U.K.
London’s Metropolitan Police confirmed in a press release on Friday, July 25, that Ward is facing two counts of rape and three counts of sexual assault in relation to an alleged offense against a woman in January 2023.
“Our specialist officers continue to support the woman who has come forward — we know investigations of this nature can have significant impact on those who make reports,” said Scott Ware, Detective Superintendent of the Metropolitan police.
Ward, 28, has been ordered to attend a hearing at the Thames Magistrates’ Court on Thursday, August 28, where he will have an opportunity to formally address the charges.
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The Top Boy alum denied the misconduct allegations, saying in a July 25 statement to Sky News: “I recognize that proceedings are now ongoing, and I have full faith that they will lead to my name being cleared.”
Us Weekly has reached out to Ward’s representative for comment.
The actor is currently appearing on the big screen in Eddington, a darkly comic Western in which he costars with Pedro Pascal, Emma Stone and Austin Butler. (Writer-Director Ari Aster’s neo-Western takes place during a hotly-contested mayoral race in Eddington, New Mexico, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.)
After starting his career with roles in music videos by Lily Allen and Tom Walker, Ward had his breakthrough in Netflix’ teen thriller series The A List in 2018. The next year, Ward received a BAFTA Rising Star Award in 2019 following his performance in crime drama Blue Story. (Filmmaker Rapman’s 2019 musical fictionalized the real-life turf war between London gangs, the Peckham Boys and the Ghetto Boys.)
Ward brought BAFTA Film Award audience members to tears with an inspiring message to young actors while accepting his prestigious Rising Star trophy at London’s Royal Albert Hall in February 2020.
“Thank you to my dad because I know you’re watching down on me, guiding me and protecting me on this journey,” Ward said as he choked up. “I want to say thank you to my mum for believing in me and sacrificing everything for all of us to be here.”
The actor concluded: “What I want to say is that, to people who are watching at home, looking at me, honestly, life didn’t have to be this way. Man, you have to just see the opportunities and see a vision.”
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Ward next earned a Best Supporting Actor BAFTA TV Award nomination in 2021 for director Steve McQueen’s Small Axe installment Lovers Rock, in which he and The Silent Twins‘ Amarah-Jae St. Aubyn played young lovers meeting up at a reggae house party in 1980.
More recently, Ward starred opposite Charlize Theron in the Netflix superhero movie The Old Guard and played a homeless soccer prodigy in The Beautiful Game. He will next appear in gritty thriller Uncle.
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).