Shia LaBeouf Will Be Put on Trial for FKA Twigs' Sexual Battery Claims

Shia LaBeouf will go to trial for his alleged abuse of his ex-girlfriend FKA Twigs on April 17, 2023. A court official confirmed the trial date to reporters from Rolling Stone on Monday. Twigs sued LaBeouf nearly a year and a half ago, and LaBeouf has denied most of her accusations.

"The gaslighting has gone on long enough here and it's time to hold Shia LaBeouf accountable. My client wants a trial date," said Twigs' lawyer Bryan Freedman on Monday. Twigs and LaBeouf dated for just under a year in 2018 and 2019. In December of 2020, Twigs accused LaBeouf of physically assaulting her and threatening her throughout their relationship, and of knowingly giving her a sexually transmitted disease. At the time, she said that part of her goal in this lawsuit is to raise awareness of these kinds of abuse patterns sin the hopes of helping other victims avoid them.

"I'd like to be able to raise awareness on the tactics that abusers use to control you and take away your agency," she told The New York Times. "What I went through with Shia was the worst thing I've ever been through in the whole of my life. I don't think people would ever think that it would happen to me. But I think that's the thing. It can happen to anybody."

Twigs has also said that if she wins this lawsuit, she intends to donate a portion of the damages she receives to domestic abuse-related charities. The specifics of her accusations have captivated headlines. She claims that LaBeouf choked her, threatened to crash her car with them both inside and attacked her in other ways. LaBeouf responded in an email to the Times denying the acts of violence but acknowledging his shortcomings as a romantic partner. He indicated that his behavior at the time was likely related to his alcoholism and his mental illness, including post-traumatic stress disorder.

"I'm not in any position to tell anyone how my behavior made them feel. I have no excuses for my alcoholism or aggression, only rationalizations. I have been abusive to myself and everyone around me for years. I have a history of hurting the people closest to me. I'm ashamed of that history and am sorry to those I hurt. There is nothing else I can really say," he wrote. While some took this as a confession, LaBeouf also told reporters that "many of these allegations are not true," but said that he owed the women in his life "the opportunity to air their statements publicly and accept accountability for those things I have done."

LaBeouf also wrote that he was "not cured of PTSD and alcoholism... but I am committed to doing what I need to do to recover, and I will forever be sorry to the people that I may have harmed along the way."

LaBeouf has a long history of arrests and other allegations relating to his alcoholism. He has gone on to date other women since Twigs, and at least one, Margaret Qualley, has voiced support for Twigs. Twigs is now dating musicina Matt Healy.