Backstreet Boys member Nick Carter has been sued for sexual battery involving an incident with a minor in 2001.
According to the lawsuit, first reported by TMZ and later obtained by Rolling Stone, Shannon Ruth, who was 17 at the time, claims she was invited by Carter, then 21, on to the Backstreet Boys’ tour bus after a concert in Tacoma, Washington. Ruth also spoke at a press conference today.
Legal documents say Ruth, who has autism and cerebral palsy, was asked by Carter if she wanted a drink. When she asked for apple juice, he offered her cranberry. She says the red-colored drink, which Carter called “VIP juice”, tasted “off”, but she drank it so as not to be rude. She now believes it was a mixture of cranberry juice and alcohol.
The suit claims that Carter then led Ruth to the tour bus bathroom and ordered her to perform oral sex on him. She says she cried throughout while he kept instructing her.
Ruth says Carter then took her to a bed and continued to sexually assault her, called her a “retarded little bitch” and said no one would believe when she said she’d tell people about his behavior.
“Just because Nick Carter is a celebrity does not mean that he is excused from his crimes,” Ruth said at the press conference. “I am a survivor and always will be.”
According to the documents, Ruth was a virgin at the time and contracted HPV after the encounter. She is now seeking damages.
A statement from Carter’s lawyers reads: “This claim about an incident that supposedly took place more than 20 years ago is not only legally meritless but also entirely untrue. Unfortunately, for several years now, Ms. Ruth has been manipulated into making false allegations about Nick – and those allegations have changed repeatedly and materially over time. No one should be fooled by a press stunt orchestrated by an opportunistic lawyer – there is nothing to this claim whatsoever, which we have no doubt the courts will quickly realize.”
These are not the first allegations of sexual assault against Carter. In 2018, Melissa Schuman, a former member of the girl band Dream, publicly claimed Carter forced her to have sex “against my will” when he was 22 and she was 18.
Carter denied the allegations, saying in a statement: “I am shocked and saddened by Ms Schuman’s accusations. Melissa never expressed to me while we were together or at any time since that anything we did was not consensual … This is the first that I am hearing about these accusations, nearly two decades later. It is contrary to my nature and everything I hold dear to intentionally cause someone discomfort or harm.”
Schuman described being “traumatised” after the attack, saying she initially “wanted to lock it in a box in my mind and let the memories slowly suffocate as time went on”. She said she felt compelled to come forward after seeing online “victim shaming” of an unnamed woman who accused Carter and a friend of sexually assaulting her in 2006. Carter’s representative said the woman “fabricated the claims against Nick for one simple reason – she was hoping to extort money from him”.
