Washington D.C. [USA], Mar 3 : Oscar-winning actor Timothy Hutton has strongly denied the accusation of raping a teenager in 1983.
In a statement released by Hutton after BuzzFeed published the story on Monday, the star said: "For the past two-and-a-half years, I have been the target of multiple extortion attempts by a woman named Sera Dale Johnston to extract millions of dollars from me."
"She threatened that if I did not meet her demands, she would go to the press with a false allegation that I sexually assaulted her 37 years ago in Canada. I never assaulted Ms Johnston," the 'Almost Family' actor continued.
"What's really going on here is that Ms Johnston's extortion attempts failed. She then decided to follow through on her threat to go to the press with her false story. When I became aware of this, I went to the FBI, signed a sworn statement, and filed a criminal complaint against Ms Johnston for extortion. I will not stop fighting to expose this story for what it is -- a failed extortion attempt based on something that never happened." Hutton concluded.
According to Deadline, in an interview with BuzzFeed News, Sera Dale Johnston alleged that in 1983, Timothy raped her when she was a junior high school student, in a Vancouver hotel room while another man looked on and participated.
Hutton was staying in town to shoot the film 'Iceman' and he and two of his friends began a conversation with Johnston and two of her classmates. He then invited them back to his hotel to hang out, according to the report.
( With inputs from ANI )