MELBOURNE, Australia — Best-selling British author Neil Gaiman released a statement Wednesday denying he had ever engaged in non-consensual sex, after a magazine this week published allegations from several women, accusing him of sexual assault.

The 64-year-old author of The Sandman comic book series and novel American Gods was responding to a New York Magazine article that detailed allegations of assault, abuse and coercion levelled by eight women. The allegations of four of them had been broadcast in July in a Tortoise Media podcast.