Two women who spoke to The Stranger accused documentary filmmaker Andrew Callaghan of raping and sexually assaulting them in 2017, when they all attended Loyola University in New Orleans. 

One woman, who we’ll call Mary, claimed he raped her in his off-campus housing. Then, the following morning, he mocked how she repeatedly said “No” during their encounter, she said. A different woman, who we’ll call Emma, said he followed her back to her dorm, where he grabbed her and then started having sex with her despite her saying “No” and beginning to cry. The two women agreed to speak only on the condition of anonymity out of concerns that they could face personal and professional repercussions.

These new allegations come after The Stranger reported on multiple women accusing Callaghan, who was raised in Seattle, of coercing them into sexual acts over their objections. Mary said reading that article motivated her to share her story out of concern that he could be harming others.  

The Stranger twice asked Callaghan and his legal representative to answer specific questions about each alleged incident as well as basic questions about this story, such as “where was Mr. Callaghan living when he attended college in New Orleans?” and “did Mr. Callaghan ever give drinks to women he met at The Boot [a bar in New Orleans]?” His legal representative responded with this: 

The allegations irresponsibly reported by The Stranger from two anonymous sources are patently false and simply did not happen. It is incomprehensible that this 'news outlet' would run a fictitious story like this without credible evidence, while allowing the accusers to remain anonymous.

Andrew has taken accountability for his role in other situations and will be the first to admit his shortcomings; however, these accusations go farther and are completely without merit. Andrew will utilize every option he has in order to clear his name and protect his reputation.

Responding to the earlier accusations, in a January 15 video released on his personal YouTube channel and on his Instagram page Callaghan said he wanted to “apologize for my silence” and added that he “didn’t even really realize that I had this pattern that had affected multiple people." Though he felt that “persistence was a form of flattery,” he said he has “always taken ‘no’ for an answer” and has “never overstepped that line.”   

 

“That’s not true. I definitely said ‘No,’ repeatedly,” Mary said in response to Callaghan’s claim. 

Mary said she first met Callaghan as a freshman at Loyola University. One night in 2017, she went out with friends to The Boot, a local bar frequented by college students. Soon after she met Callaghan at the bar, she claims he gave her “four or five shots” in rapid succession until she felt intoxicated. He drank far less during that time, she said.

She later ended up at Callaghan’s off-campus housing, though she couldn’t recall how. But she did remember lying in his bed with him above her, “feeling vaginal pain,” then saying, “No, no, I just want to go to sleep,” and then trying to roll away but struggling against his attempts to “physically keep me in the position that I was in,” she said. 

In the morning, she said she realized that something “really bad had happened, and that there was no gray area about it,” so she asked him what had taken place. 

In response, she said, he mocked her and told her she had only rejected his advances because his penis was too big. 

“He said, ‘You were all like, “No, no, it’s so big, like no I can’t,”’” she said. 

She added that he kept quoting her to herself, saying, “You were saying ‘No,’ you were crying, ‘No, no, no, no, please stop,’” and that he kept laughing. 

His mocking reaffirmed her recollection and added insult to injury, she said. 

“He was definitely with it enough to remember what I was saying, and what was really scary–which has held my attention ever since then–was that he did not even understand what that sounded like. He didn’t understand that telling me that I was crying ‘No’ to him was an admission of rape. He was joking and laughing about it to my face the morning after,” she said. 

Without a charged phone that she could use, she said she went into “protection mode” and tried not to do anything to upset Callaghan, who “pleaded” with her to accompany him to a nearby breakfast place called the Satsuma Café.

After the two of them finished breakfast, Mary said they went back to his place and she used her now charged phone to call a ride home.

Mary said she didn't report the alleged rape to the police because she was fearful of Callaghan. "I didn't want to do anything that would bring me to his attention because I was so scared of him,” she said. 

Looking back, she said she realized she tried to repress much of what had happened from the night of the alleged rape. “I had this idea in my head that if I did not accept that I had been raped then I hadn’t been raped,” she said. 

A few months later, she shared her experience with a close friend. Over the course of the next several years, she disclosed the story to another friend, a family member, a boyfriend, and another woman, Emma, who told her that Callaghan had sexually assaulted her, too. All of them told The Stranger they recalled speaking to Mary about the alleged incident.

After consulting with one friend, Mary said in 2021 she called her hometown Sexual Assault Resources Center’s 24/7 hotline to get information on what she could do, as she was concerned about Callaghan targeting others. The operator told her it was too late, and that it had occurred in a different state, she said. 

She also said she disclosed the alleged incident to a therapist she started seeing in the summer of 2022. In an interview, that therapist confirmed that Mary said she had been raped in college.

Mary also showed The Stranger a message exchange from 2021, wherein she shared what had happened with Emma, whom she met at Loyola. In a phone interview and in the messages, Emma said that Callaghan had also sexually assaulted her. 

She had been out one night in the Spring of 2017 when she ran into him outside The Boot. She said he approached her and asked her if they could go elsewhere to hang out alone. She said “sure,” but added that she needed to go up to her nearby dorm room to get something. She said that Callaghan followed her to her dorm. When she told him to wait outside, she said he insisted on coming upstairs. Then, she said, he cornered her in her room. That move caught her off guard, as she hadn’t actually intended to invite Callaghan upstairs.

When she asked Callagahn to leave, she said he refused. She then asked him to close his eyes while she changed her clothes, but then he grabbed her and began having sex with her, she said. 

She said she told him to stop, as he was causing her pain from a previous injury–she had broken her back in 2013. Emma showed The Stranger a 2021 email exchange with her doctor, wherein she discussed this back injury and a subsequent MRI test she took over concerns that she had reinjured herself. When she alleges she was being assaulted by Callaghan, the pain from this past injury felt like “tearing a muscle,” she said. 

She said she remembers crying and telling him, “You can’t do that, this hurts,” due to back and hip pain from her injury, but “he just told me to shut up.” She claimed she said ‘No’ “at least three times,” and in response Callaghan covered her mouth “at least once” but otherwise ignored her.

“I wasn’t a person in that moment. It was beyond being objectified. It was like I did not exist. It felt as if he was looking right through me,” she said.

After Callaghan finished, she said he got dressed and left. 

Another friend of Emma’s from college said that Emma told her about the alleged assault a year later, in 2018. This friend provided text messages from 2020 that the two exchanged discussing the alleged incident in detail, as well as messages she had sent to others she knew trying to warn them about spending time with Callaghan. 

In addition to the messages she exchanged with this friend and with Mary, Emma showed The Stranger a journal entry from the spring of 2017, wherein she wrote about how she felt after the alleged assault. “I replay that night with Andrew over and over and over. Please stop thinking about the fact that he didn’t stop even though you asked so many times,” she wrote. 

If you have a story to add to this conversation, then email us your contact information.

If you or someone you know has experienced sexual assault, you can reach the King County Sexual Assault Resources Center’s 24/7 Resource Line at 1.888.99.VOICE to get connected to advocacy and therapy services.