The former nanny, who first testified to witnessing Woody Allen behaving inappropriately with a young Dylan Farrow, has spoken on the matter. For the first time in decades, Allison Stickland has given her account on the events which took place in Allen’s home.
Stickland, who worked as a nanny for Mia’s family friend Casey Pascal, was looking after their children the day Dylan was allegedly abused. On Monday’s episode of the Allen v Farrow companion podcast, the former nanny described renewed attention of the events of the early nineties. On the podcast, Stickland said, “you don’t think something all those years ago is going to come back, so it was a shock”.
Producers of the documentary explained that they went through a lot of effort to track down the nanny. Stickland responded to letters after filming and editing of the new HBO miniseries was already complete.
“I didn’t respond very quickly because I had to let it sink in,” she told the podcast. “I felt, you know, it’s something I kind of really need to do because if I leave it and don’t, it will probably eat away at me,” she said.
On the day of the alleged offence, Stickland was looking after their children at Farrow and Allen’s Connecticut country home. In a court testimony, the nanny said she saw Allen being inappropriate with 7-year-old Dylan. She mentioned that she saw Allen burying his face in Dylan’s naked lap, while she was not wearing underwear.
The nanny said at the time that “Dylan was sitting upright on the couch and Woody was kneeling directly in front of her, with his face in Dylan’s lap,” according to The Daily Beast. “His face was very close to her private area.”
“I just walked, turned, and went. I was shocked. I thought it was very odd. I thought… I didn’t know what to think of it, really. It’s not something you expect to see… a situation you expect to see a father and daughter in,” the nanny recalled on Monday’s episode.
Stickland said her adoptive father crouched and put his face between her legs, as Dylan stared “vacantly in the direction of a television set”. The nanny was the only adult in the house, other than Allen, and also the only witness not employed by either Allen or Farrow. As a result, Stickland’s testimony was considered highly important in the 1992 case.
The four-part HBO series maps out the controversial custody battle between Allen and Farrow and the serious allegations of child sexual abuse from the time, as well as a new account from Dylan of what she allegedly went through as a child. Allen has always denied the allegations and said Dylan was “coached” by his mother to make the claims.
