Backstreet Boys singer Nick Carter has been accused of raping Melissa Schuman, a singer and former member of teen band Dream.
She says she confided in her then manager Nils Larsen, but was told that Carter had the most powerful litigator in the country.
‘I am about to share something that I’ve wanted to pretend never happened since I was 18,’ Schuman wrote on her blog.
‘A burden I thought I’d have to carry for the rest of my life and suffer in silence.’
The alleged rape took place at Carter’s Santa Monica apartment when they both had a day off from filming a movie they were working on together.
Schuman says she took her roommate with her, and Carter had a friend there too, they hung out and laughed and talked together and all took a shot.
She then describes in detail what she says happened; that he allegedly forcibly performed oral sex on her, forced her to perform oral sex on him, and then forced her to have penetrative sex with him.
‘He threw me on the bed and climbed on top of me,’ she writes.
‘Again, I told him that I was a virgin and I didn’t want to have sex. I told him that I was saving myself for my future husband. I said it over and over again. He whispered in my ear as to entice me, “I could be your husband.”’
Schuman says she didn’t see him again until several years later when they were booked for a performance together, where she says he was ‘agitated’ and wanted to get the performance over and done with as quickly as possible.
When her management’s interest in her waned after the showcase, Schuman wondered whether Carter had any influence on the decision, since he was close with her manager Kenneth Crear.
‘I never did another showcase again after that and I quickly lost interest in pursuing a career as a recording artist. I was broken. I was tired. I was traumatized.’
Years later when the news of Harvey Weinstein’s sexual assault accusations broke, Schuman says friends and family - who she had told about her alleged abuse - asked if she wanted to tell her story.
She declined, until she saw headlines about Nick Carter being investigated for allegedly sexually assaulting a 20-year-old fan at a house party.
‘I feel I have an obligation now to come forward with the hope and intention to inspire and encourage other victims to tell their story’ she writes at the end of the post.
‘We are stronger in numbers. If you are reading this and you have been assaulted, know you don’t have to be silent and you are not alone. I know it’s scary. I’m scared.’
Carter has not yet commented on the accusations.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.