Taylor’s court fury at DJ who ‘grabbed my bare bottom’
‘It was intentional, I was shocked’
TAYLOR Swift told a court yesterday how a radio presenter groped her during a ‘meet and greet’ session for fans before a concert.
The American singer said DJ David Mueller put his hand up her skirt and grabbed her bottom as they posed together for a photograph backstage.
Miss Swift, 27, who is suing Mueller for sexual assault, told a jury she was horrified by the incident.
‘He stayed latched on to my bare a** cheek as I lurched away from him. [His hand] didn’t let go,’ she said. ‘It was a definite grab. A very long grab.
‘Long enough to be completely sure that it was intentional. It was a very shocking thing. I had never dealt with something like this before.’
She rejected Mueller’s claim that what occurred was merely ‘jostling’ as they got into position for a photo, insisting: ‘What Mr Mueller did was very intentional.’
The photo of her flanked by Mueller and his then girlfriend, Shannon Melcher, showed the moment he allegedly groped her at the Pepsi Center in Denver in June 2013 during her Red tour.
Miss Swift, who gave evidence for just under an hour dressed in a V-neck top floral top with a simple necklace and wearing her hair back, added: ‘After this happened, it was like a light switched off in my personality.’
She was so stunned she even thanked Mueller and Miss Melcher, who both appeared to be intoxicated, for coming to the event. She did not want to disap- point the dozens of fans waiting in line to meet her, so she remained and ‘got as far away from him as I possibly could’.
Miss Swift admitted that she said nothing about the incident until she mentioned it to her photographer Stephanie Simbeck about 15 minutes later.
She said she wanted to keep the incident private as ‘this was something I did not want known’.
Security guard Greg Dent witnessed the DJ, then 51, lifting her skirt. But he would not have been able to see the actual groping, Miss Swift said. Her team told Mueller’s bosses at Denver radio station KYGO about the incident and he was fired from his £115,000a-year job two days later, following an in-house investigation.
As a result, Mueller sued Miss Swift for defamation, seeking £2.3million in damages. Miss Swift’s action is a countersuit.
She is claiming a symbolic $1 in damages, saying she wants to act as an example to other women he who did have was been despicable,’ assaulted. she ‘Whatsaid.
Miss Swift’s radio representative Frank Bell has told the court that he alerted KYGO to the alleged assault but did not request that Mueller be fired. On Tuesday, Mueller described his encounter with Miss Swift as‘awkward and weird’. But he insisted he did not touch the pop star’s bottom.
He told Denver District Court: ‘I knowmy hand was touching her rib or her skirt. And it went behind her, and her hand, or arm, went behind my arm. I’m here to prove that I’m innocent. I had a good reputation in radio and I would like to get it back.’ On Wednesday, the jury heard Miss Swift’s mother Andrea, 59, say she felt sick when her daughter told her that she had been groped backstage.
‘I went into the dressing room and I saw her face. I could see that there was something horribly wrong,’ Mrs Swift said.
‘She said, “Mom, a guy just grabbed my a**”. I wanted to vomit and cry at the same time.’ Mrs Swift, who is part of her daughter’s management team, said it was bizarre Mueller that and the Miss singer Melcher had after thankedthe incident.
‘It was destroying her that she said that,’ Mrs Swift told the jury. ‘As a parent it made me question why I taught her to be so polite.’
Wiping away tears, she added: ‘She was really shaken. She was humiliated.’
She said Miss Swift did not report the incident to the police because she ‘ did not want this event to define her life’.
Pointing her finger at Mueller, Mrs Swift said: ‘ He sexually assaulted my daughter.
‘Right there, that guy. I heard it from my daughter’s mouth. I know that it happened.’
She said the incident had ‘absolutely shattered our trust’ and led to more precautions being put in place when her daughter meets fans.
‘Our meet-and-greets are much smaller,’ she said. ‘ We now have metal detectors. We wand people. We now do background checks. It scared us really badly.’