Jared Leto: Campaigners call for concerts to be cancelled

US rock band Thirty Seconds to Mars, known for hit songs including The Kill, This is War and Kings And Queens, was formed by Leto and his brother Shannon in the late 1990s.

They began touring in the 2000s and progressed to headlining major arenas around the world.

As part of the BBC documentary Jared Leto: Hollywood’s Dark Secret, two men who worked with Leto’s band for many years recall how uncomfortable staff felt about the way Leto would interact with teenage girls.

One alleges that crew members were instructed to invite young girls backstage after they would join Leto on stage at gigs.

Another says at one point there would typically be about two girls a day stopping by to see Leto at a house where the band was working.

Among those who have accused Leto is ex-model Alex, who says her agency was invited to a Thirty Seconds to Mars’ concert at London’s O2 arena in 2013.

She says she was later invited to an after-party by Leto’s female assistant and, although she was 19 at the time, she says to protect herself she “felt the need” to pretend to be younger when she met Leto.

She says she told him she was 17, and that Leto, then 41, replied: “Age is just a number, and anyway, we’re in Europe.”

Alex says one of Leto’s assistants encouraged her to go to another party at a nearby hotel later, but only Leto was in the room when she arrived.

When she asked Leto if she could sleep on the chaise longue in the room, Alex says the star responded by saying that, if she did, she would wake up “with a dick in her ass”.

Alex says she tried to dismiss what happened, but she now believes the hotel encounter had been “all planned out”.

In total, 10 women have spoken to the BBC documentary, with nine of them sharing their stories publicly for the first time.

Despite repeated attempts to contact Jared Leto before publication of the original story, he did not respond to the allegations put to him by the BBC.

After the story was published, Leto said in a statement released by his representatives to the BBC: “I have never sexually assaulted anyone in my entire life. These claims are absolutely and categorically false”.