What to know about the false pedophile claims made against 'Game of Thrones' star Joseph Gatt, as actor sues LA for $40 million

• "Game of Thrones" star Joseph Gatt is suing the city of Los Angeles for $40 million.
• The actor was arrested after he was falsely accused of being a pedophile in 2022.

"Game of Thrones" star Joseph Gatt is suing the City of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Police Department, and District Attorney George Gascón for $40 million after the actor was falsely accused of being a pedophile in 2022.

The actor is best known for playing a Thenn warg in "Game of Thrones" season four, as well as a villain called The Albino in the 2014 crime thriller series, "Banshee."

The LAPD arrested Gatt in April 2022 after officers were given information that the actor had allegedly sent sexually explicit messages to a minor online. The charges were dropped in February 2024.

In a lawsuit filed on April 4, Gatt's lawyers claim that the LAPD did not interview the accuser until one year after Gatt's arrest. The suit names her as Jane Doe to protect her identity because she was 16 years old at the time.

Gatt's lawyers told Business Insider: "Twenty months later, when the fabricated evidence was finally disclosed to Mr. Gatt and Mr. Gatt's forensic expert were prepared to expose the truth in open court, the Los Angeles DA voluntarily dismissed the criminal complaint."

Gatt is suing the city for $40 million claiming that the false charges damaged his career.

The suit states: "He was fired from two different movies in which he had already been cast, and he was also recast in a third movie in which he had been hired to play the lead role."

An underage fan is said to have fabricated sexually explicit messages between herself and Gatt

According to the suit, Doe's sister's boyfriend paid Gatt to film a birthday message for her on the Cameo app. She was a fan of the actor and had a naked photo of him on her phone's lockscreen, taken from "Banshee."

"Without Gatt's knowledge, and apparently using software readily available on the internet for the specific purpose of creating fake social media conversations to trick and impress friends," the suit reads.

It goes on: "Jane Doe thereafter wholly manufactured fake conversations between herself and Gatt via the social media platform Snapchat that were sexual in nature and pure fantasy."

It also states that Doe's sister saw these falsified conversations in 2021 and took photos of them on her own phone before sending the pictures to the LAPD.

"Defendants made no attempt whatsoever to obtain and review a forensic image of the actual phone on which these supposed conversations allegedly took place or to otherwise review any of Jane Doe's electronic or online data, in an attempt to confirm or refute her story before maliciously and recklessly weaponizing her patently false allegations to destroy Gatt's reputation and career," Gatt's attorneys wrote.

The City of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Police Department, and District Attorney George Gascón did not immediately respond to a request for comment.