Music

Black Flag guitarist Greg Ginn accused of disturbing acts of child abuse

by Mark Teo

According to court documents, Black Flag co-founder Greg Ginn is an abusive father—both emotionally and physically—to his two daughters, alleges his ex-wife Marina Ginn.

Today, both Consequence of Sound and Pitchfork obtained an affidavit filed on October 10, in which Marina requests an emergency motion to remove her children from Greg’s house, which the document states is in an industrial building that doubles as Black Flag’s practise space. “I believe my children’s health and welfare is being jeopardized,” she writes in the document.

Marina’s allegations, then, are quite serious—and they’re graphic. She notes that Greg has a long history of drug and alcohol abuse, and she says his conditions have worsened: She says the guitarist “drinks and does drugs practically all day,” and that it’s resulting in erratic—and horrific—behaviour.

For one, Greg allegedly whistles at his daughters, aged 7 and 10, and, says the document, tells them “you’re hot.” The guitarist is accused of denying his daughters food, telling his daughters that they “are fat and need to lose weight and their diets will have to be more strenuous.”

As for their diets? Marina says the children are often fed either lettuce with vinegar or heavily spiced vegetable soup, and she claims Greg often threatens that if they don’t eat it, he won’t feed them anything else.

Worse still, the court document says that Greg often locks up his children until late at night—2 a.m.—without being given any contact with the outside world. Marina also says that he forces the children to do chorus, often until late at night, and threatened to “throw all their toys in the trash if they did not clean the entire building at 1 a.m.” He’s accused of punishing his daughters by throwing water in their face, which she says makes “my youngest daughter scream and hide under the piano.”

Marina says that Greg’s behaviour is impacting their childrens’ development: They’re not allowed to attend public school, and because of their father’s behaviour, live in a state of perpetual fear. They, says the document, aren’t allowed to contact their mother. And when they express their opinions in front of Greg, Marina says they’re mocked and told to “shut the fuck up.”

After alleging that the two girls heard a fight while being locked away, Marina says she fears for their safety. Here’s what’s stated in the court doc:

Those are certainly serious allegations. We’ll keep you posted on any developments.