SIMON LE BON: I'M NO SEX PEST
Duran Duran legend denies grab attack
POP legend Simon Le Bon has vehemently denied sexually assaulting a woman fan at a record shop in Los Angeles.
The Duran Duran singer, accused of grabbing her “butt cheek” during an autograph session, said: “I can’t apologise for something I did not do.”
DURAN Duran frontman Simon Le Bon has denied sexually assaulting a woman fan in what she suggested was a “Trumplike” grab attack.
The singer has been accused in the US of grabbing a woman’s private parts while signing autographs.
It is claimed the pop heart-throb, 59, assaulted Shereen Hariri at the record shop where she worked in Los Angeles. Writing her “#MeToo” statement on Facebook, in a nod to the ongoing campaign of sex abuse in Hollywood, she said the star was posing for photos when he grabbed her “butt cheek” and started “making his way down to my genitals”.
“I was shocked and completely frozen,” she wrote.
She said she was “afraid of the consequences” of confronting the hitmaker after the alleged incident at The Wherehouse store in 1995.
“If I made a scene, I’d be in the press: The ‘Girl Who Accused Simon Le Bon’. I’d probably be fired, rejected, ignored, even hated,” she wrote.
Amends
Ms Hariri said she changed her mind after the release of Donald Trump’s notorious “grab them by the p ***y” tape in October 2016.
“I decided that time’s up. I’m not holding this secret anymore,” she wrote.
“I want everyone to know what this man did to me. I hope he comes clean publicly.
“I hope he make amends to his wife and daughters.”
Ms Hariri, now 47, works as a sex therapist in Los Angeles and said she is not seeking compensation, just an apology. She claims the ’80s icon pulled out of meeting with her to talk about the accusation, forcing her to go public. Married dad-of-three Le Bon, whose wife is model Yasmin, 53, denies the claims.
The musician, famous for hits The Reflex, Rio and Hungry Like The Wolf, released a statement slamming the allegations on Duran Duran’s official Facebook page.
“The behaviour that Ms Hariri has accused me of, would have been just as inappropriate and unacceptable to me then as it is today. But the allegation is simply untrue,” he wrote.
“I have always been one who can admit to my mistakes and apologise for my failings.
“But I cannot apologise for something I did not do.”
His assistant, Katy Krassner, said she was at the store at the time of the alleged incident.
“I can tell you that what he is being accused of DID NOT happen,” she said.
Fans have backed their idol on Twitter using the hashtag #IstandwithSimon.