Joseph Gatt has appeared in court after he was arrested for “contact with a minor for a sexual offense”.
The ‘Game of Thrones’ star, 52, was freed on a $5,000 bail following his arrested in April 2022 by police who showed up at his home with a search warrant.
A preliminary hearing for the actor, famed for playing Thenn Warg on HBO’s hit ‘Game of Thrones’ fantasy series, was also charged with gun possession, but that charge is now likely to be dropped, prosecutors announced during Gatt’s court appearance on Monday. (18.12.23)
Gatt will have to wait another two months for his day in court on the more serious charge of having sexually explicit contact online with a minor.
A preliminary hearing in Los Angeles where prosecutors were expected to outline their case against the actor was continued to February 7, with
the charge of felony possession of an assault weapon is set to be “dismissed”
deputy district attorney Michael Fern told judge Susan Dewitt.
The judge Dewitt continued Monday’s initial hearing on request from Gatt’s attorney Dana Cole – who said they had received a “whole bunch of new discovery” that an “expert” needed “sufficient time to go over all this”.
Gatt wore a charcoal-grey suit and open-necked white shirt and left court hand in hand with his long-time girlfriend, the 51-year-old writer and actress Mercy Malick.
The LAPD’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force first started looking into the actor after a tip about his alleged online activities and the star was charged with “contact with a minor for sexual offence” and felony possession of an assault weapon.
He pleaded not guilty to both charges at the time and was released on his $5,000 bail – but was banned from unsupervised time with minors, possessing pornography and using social media except for work purposes.
Gatt said on X in a denial of the allegations against him: “I obviously want to address the absolutely horrifying and completely untrue allegations recently levelled against me.
“They are 100 per cent categorically wrong and reckless.
“I have confirmed errors and misleading information in today’s press release.
“I am fully cooperating with police and LAPD to get to the bottom of this.
“I look forward to clearing my good name.
“Thank you to all of my friends and supporters who know that this is untrue and understand for legal reasons I cannot comment further on social media.”
Gatt played Thenn Warg on Game of Thrones and played The Albino on the ‘Banshee’ show and had a part in ‘Teen Wolf’, while his movie credits include ‘Thor’.