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Nick Carter is countersuing the women who have accused him of rape and says they have taken ‘advantage’ of the MeToo movement.
The Backstreet Boys bandmate believes the allegations against him is part of a plan to extort him, as per the Los Angeles Times.
In December, Shannon Ruth accused the singer of sexual battery and alleged that he had infected her with HIV in 2001 when she was 17 and Carter was 21 following a concert.
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Melissa Schuman, a former teen pop singer with the girl group Dream, also claimed Carter had raped her in 2017.
According to Variety, Ruth - who is now 39 - told a press conference: "The last 21 years have been filled with pain, confusion, frustration, shame, and self-harm that are a direct result of Nick Carter raping me.
"Even though I'm autistic and live with cerebral palsy, I believe nothing has affected me more … than what Nick Carter did to me."
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The singer’s attorneys had slammed the two women as opportunists in a filing obtained by the LA Times.
“Carter will not allow himself to be smeared in this way. Protecting one’s reputation and name by calling a liar a liar is not victim blaming or bullying. It is simply telling the truth,” his attorneys wrote.
They point out that one of the accusers, Ruth, waited years to report her sexual battery allegations, ultimately leading to an independent investigation resulting in no criminal charges.
Carter and his attorneys described the previous lawsuit as ‘the culmination of an approximate five-year conspiracy orchestrated by [Ruth, Schuman and her father, Jerome Schuman] to harass, defame and extort him'.
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They added: “Carter’s business opportunities and dealings for the purpose of extorting money from Carter, garnering attention and fame, and/or keeping their names in the limelight.”
The filing also claimed that the allegations had cost the '90s heartthrob more than USD $2.3 million (AUD $3.3 million) due to show cancelations and lost endorsement deals.
Carter also said the two women enlisted his late brother, Aaron Carter, to support their claims.
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He said they exploited ‘Aaron's fragile condition and family stresses to cloak their defamatory campaign with credibility, relentlessly and repeatedly using Aaron to try to legitimize their frivolous tales’.
While the late Carter initially supported their allegations, he went on to publicly apologize, suggesting the accusers were lying.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Ruth’s legal team responded to the counter lawsuit in an email to the outlet: “Why should Nick Carter be believed with his long history of abusing females. A jury will weigh the evidence and decide.”
Charisa Bossinakis