Image copyright EPA Image caption Sara Danius is the latest member of the Swedish Academy to step down 
 
 The head of the Swedish Academy - the prestigious body that awards the Nobel Prize in Literature - has stepped down in the wake of a sexual abuse scandal. 
 
 The organisation has been criticised for its handling of a probe into the alleged sexual misconduct of a man married to one of its members. 
 
 "It has already affected the Nobel Prize quite severely and that is quite a big problem," said Professor Sara Danius, as she stood down. 
 
 The accused denies all the allegations. 
 
 "It was the wish of the Academy that I should leave my role as Permanent Secretary," Ms Danius told reporters on Thursday. "I have made this decision with immediate effect." 
 
 Last November, inspired by the #MeToo campaign, 18 women made allegations of sexual assault and harassment against Jean-Claude Arnault, the husband of Academy member Katarina Frostenson. 
 
 After the Academy voted against removing Ms Frostenson last week, three of its members Klas Ostergren, Kjell Espmark and Peter Englund withdrew from the 18-person committee in protest, Swedish media reported. 
 
 While they cannot technically resign from their positions, which are for life, they can stop participating in the Academy's activities. 
 
 The Nobel body had cut all ties and funding to Mr Arnault, who runs a cultural club in Stockholm, shortly after the allegations came to light. 
 
 The Swedish Academy said at the time that it had potentially broken its own rules regulating conflict of interest and appointed a legal firm to investigate its committee members' links with Mr Arnault. 
 
 His lawyer told Reuters that he rejected all the claims against him. 
 
 Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Mr Arnault - a cultural figure in Sweden - did not attend last year's Nobel Prize banquet following the allegations against him 
 
 "Jean-Claude Arnault rejects all claims of criminal activity and he rejects other allegations that have been made against him," Bjorn Hurtig said in an email. 
 
 None of the sexual misconduct allegations had been reported to the police when the scandal broke last year, but state prosecutors opened a preliminary investigation into the incidents. 
 
 Last month, they said some parts of their probe had been shelved due to a lack of evidence and because the statute of limitations had passed for some of the allegations. 
 
 However, the investigation related to some incidents was continuing, prosecutors confirmed. ||||| PREMIUM: How the Swedish Academy rapidly descended into farce 
 
 "It is the Academy's wish that I leave my post as permanent secretary," Danius said after an emergency meeting of academy members in Stockholm. 
 
 "I would have liked to have continued, but there are other things to do in life," she told reporters. 
 
 Also stepping down is Academy member Katarina Frostenson, a Swedish writer and the wife of the man at the centre of the scandal, Jean-Claude Arnault, a high-profile figure on Sweden's cultural scene. 
 
 The resignations come after the daily Dagens Nyheter in November published statements from 18 women, alleging they had been subject to harassment and physical abuse by Arnault. 
 
 He denies the accusations and police investigations into the allegations have been dropped. 
 
 He has also been accused of leaking the names of several Nobel Prize winners before the official announcements. Concerns have also been raised of a conflict of interest after it emerged that his wife is a part-owner of his culture venue, which has received financial support from the academy. 
 
 The academy has since severed all ties with him and cut grants made to him. 
 
 It also launched an internal investigation and enlisted the services of a law firm, which recommended that the academy file a police report. However, it did not take such action. 
 
 The academy, which is under the direct patronage of the Swedish king, is traditionally very discreet and has been deeply shaken by the scandal. 
 
 The head of the Nobel Foundation, Lars Heikensten, has publicly expressed concern about what he termed a "serious and difficult situation". 
 
 Three academics resigned last week in protest after the institution had expressed renewed confidence in Frostenson, who finally announced her resignation on Thursday. 
 
 According to Peter Englund, one of the three who resigned, the case has deeply divided the institution. 
 
 He believes that Sara Danius, who succeeded him in 2015, is the target of "unwarranted" internal criticism. 
 
 Another member , Horace Engdahl, said that there was "a problem of leadership". 
 
 "A radical gesture was needed to create the conditions for a new beginning," he told Swedish public television SVT. 
 
 A professor of literature at Stockholm University, Danius was the first woman to hold the position. 
 
 She had been credited with trying to open up the closed institution to the public and bring it into the modern era, but her style of leadership has proved divisive. 
 
 Most of the Swedish culture and literature world appeared to come out in defence of Danius on Friday. Many people, including former academy head Englund, vowed to wear a pussy cat bow blouse, Danius' signature fashion choice. The Swedish word for such a blouse #knytblus was trending on Twitter on Friday morning.
– A male accused of sexual assault and leaks of secret information; a woman who takes the fall. What sounds like the plot of novel is instead the true story of a scandal that's riling the literary world. Sara Danius, who has since 2015 served as the first female permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy—essentially making her the public face of the body that doles out the Nobel Prize in Literature—is out, and Jean-Claude Arnault is the reason why. The New York Times reports he's a cultural bigwig in Sweden and married to one of the academy's members. But his academy connection runs deeper than that and involves funding, and so a newspaper's November expose on Arnault and the 18 women who had accused him of sexual harassment and assault hit hard. The newspaper alleged incidents took place at academy-owned and -funded properties over two decades and accused Arnault of leaking info on the prize winner on seven occasions. The academy cut him off and investigated via an outside law firm, but that didn't calm the internal consternation of what the Local describes as a historically "discreet" organization: Three members quit last week as an act of protest after the board voted not to boot Arnault's wife, Katarina Frostenson, reports the BBC; she resigned Thursday, the same day Danius was ousted. The scandal "has already affected the Nobel Prize quite severely and that is quite a big problem," said Danius. "It was the wish of the Academy that I should leave my role as Permanent Secretary." Arnault has denied the allegations.