Nick Carter of the Backstreet Boys is said to have raped a teenage girl and given her HPV.
A woman has accused Nick Carter of sexual battery and giving her HPV when she was 17 and he was 21. She has filed a civil sexual battery lawsuit against him.
During a press conference on Thursday at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Los Angeles, an attorney for 39-year-old Shannon “Shay” Ruth said that Carter sexually assaulted his client in February 2001 after a Backstreet Boys concert in Tacoma, Wash. This claim was the same as what was said in the lawsuit, which was obtained by TMZ. Live video of the press conference was shown on Facebook.
Ruth told the reporters at the briefing that she had been raped and gave them permission to use her full name.
According to TMZ, the complaint says that after Ruth went to a Backstreet Boys concert and waited in line for autographs, Carter invited her to ride with him on a tour bus, where he allegedly served her a drink he called “VIP juice.” She said that she thinks the drink was a mix of cranberry juice and alcohol.
Ruth says in the lawsuit that after she drank the “juice,” Carter took her to the bathroom on the bus and told her to give him oral sex. This is what TMZ says happened. He is then said to have taken Ruth to a bed in the back of the bus and continued to sexually assault her while she begged him to stop.
Ruth kept saying that the alleged attack was a rape during the press conference.
The Los Angeles Times asked Carter’s representatives for a comment on Thursday, but they did not respond right away.
Ruth told reporters on Thursday, “The last 21 years have been full of pain, confusion, frustration, shame, and self-harm…”
“Even though I’m autistic and have cerebral palsy, I think the alleged assault has affected me and my life more than anything else,” she said.
Ruth also said that Carter used ableist and misogynistic language. According to TMZ, she said that Carter called her a “r— little b—” and told her that no one would believe her. Ruth said at the press conference that she soon after started cutting herself.
“I felt like I had nowhere to turn and no other way to show my feelings, pain, and confusion than to hurt myself. She said, “I really thought that if I told anyone, I would go to jail.”
Rolling Stone says that Ruth also claims in her lawsuit that Carter gave her HPV. She wants money for both compensatory and punitive damages.
