Four women. That is the number at the centre of a BBC investigation that has sent tremors through the UK live-music industry, as women's safety advocates call on arena promoters to cancel two forthcoming Thirty Seconds to Mars concerts — one at London's The O2, another at Manchester's Co-Op Live — scheduled for next April. The allegations against frontman Jared Leto, now 54, include sexual assault and grooming, and are said to have occurred during the 2000s and 2010s, when the women were teenagers and Leto was in his thirties and forties. Leto has strongly denied all of the claims.

The BBC investigation, published last week, has drawn swift and pointed responses from two prominent organisations: the End Violence Against Women Coalition and the domestic abuse charity Women's Aid. Both have told BBC Newsbeat that they are deeply troubled by the prospect of the concerts proceeding as planned. A spokesperson for Women's Aid described it as "troubling" that events remain scheduled which would, in their view, place an alleged abuser in a position of public celebration, and called on organisers to prioritise safety over commercial interest. Janaya Walker, interim director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition, gave voice to a broader anxiety — that the continued sale of tickets sends an implicit message to survivors across Britain and beyond.

She argued that the live-music industry is now confronting a clear choice about what behaviour it is willing to platform, and what that choice communicates to the women and girls who will see these reports and then watch events move forward without consequence.