Chris Avellone breaks silence on sexual assault allegations, will take case to court

Renowned RPG writer Chris Avellone, best-known for his work on the Fallout series, has ended his year-long silence following the allegations of sexual assault made against him in June 2020.

Avellone has been accused of being a "sexual predator" by several women, who claim he has sexually assaulted them on multiple occasions in the past.

Specifically, a woman named Karissa accused Avellone that in 2012, during a convention in Atlanta called "Dragon Con", he had gotten her drunk then sexually assaulted her, while one of her friends, named Kelly, claimed that Chris touched her inappropriately and propositioned her.

The accusations were made on 19th June 2020 and soon after, Avellone was removed from all the projects he has been working on at the time, including Dying Light 2 and The Waylanders.

Following the accusations, Avellone went radio silent and remained inactive on social media for a full year.

It turns out that Avellone has spent his time away from the public eye collecting material for his defence, as he plans to bring his case to court.

Avellone claims that everything he had with Karissa was consensual. (Picture: Avellone/Karissa)

Avellone released a statement on 26th June, in which he gives his side of the story, including a detailed explanation of his history with Karissa and Jackie, his views on some issues in the gaming industry, and more.

Avellone claims that Karissa's accusations are the result of a bad breakup he had had with her friend Jackie. Chris states that they were seeing each other for a year, but claims that it wasn't serious.

"We were not boyfriend/girlfriend. We stopped seeing each other 7 years ago. I had to break it off, in no small part to Karissa continually, angrily inserting herself into our relationship — which Jackie encouraged," Chris wrote.

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Chris believes that accusations against him were fabricated out of malice, as an act of revenge, as he thinks that Karissa wants him to suffer.

Chris says that he doesn't want to silence anyone but wants everyone to be heard, and that's why he has chosen to take the legal route.

"I want Karissa's and Kelly's story to be not only heard, but elevated, and I want them to speak more about what happened, " Chris explained. "And after they have spoken, I want my response and the responses of others who witnessed the allegations to be heard as well."

One of many deleted tweets. (Picture: Avellone/Karissa)

Avellone says that since the accusations, Karissa has deleted "almost 60,000+ tweets" but that they were able to save a large portion of them which they will use for the case. According to him, many of these tweets contradict her claims, both in regard to her relationship with him and in regard to her claims that she was sexually assaulted.

Avellone claims that he tried to reach Karissa and speak with her about everything, but says that she told him that he doesn't deserve an answer and she "owes him nothing."

"I spent the last year trying to persuade myself that these acts were done out of a misguided sense of self-righteousness. I have tried to correct the record, dispel misconceptions, allow voices to be heard, but it is clear I was wrong," Chris concluded. "I'm ready to defend myself, and setting the record straight is the first step."

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Avellone states that this is just the beginning and that there is "more, much more" to come. The full statement, named "It's come to this", can be read here.