DJ groped me just before I went on stage, says Taylor
Taylor Swift says she felt violated after being groped by a disc jockey backstage before a concert.
The chart-topping singer claims she was molested while posing for a photograph with David Mueller in Denver.
In papers submitted to a Colorado court, Miss Swift says: ‘right as the moment came for us to pose for the photo, he took his hand and put it up my dress and grabbed on to my bottom cheek and no matter how much I scooted over it was still there. It was completely intentional, I’ve never been so sure of anything in my life.’
The 26-year-old singer, whose hits include I Knew you Were Trouble and Shake It off, says she felt shocked following the incident in June 2013. ‘I remember being frantic, distressed, feeling violated in a way I had never experienced before,’ she said in the deposition obtained by Billboard magazine. ‘I was completely stunned.’
She won a ruling from the judge that a photograph of the alleged assault should not be made public. Mr Mueller insists it was an accident and is suing Miss Swift for lost income and slander. He claims he lost his job at KyGo radio station in Denver following her claims. Miss Swift is countersuing for sexual assault and battery.
Mr Mueller says that on being invited backstage, he and his girlfriend were granted a picture with the star and then left the backstage area. He says a colleague, DJ Eddie Haskell, was also at the concert and bragged about being photographed with Miss Swift and grabbing her.
The singer’s deposition says that Miss Swift ‘knows exactly who committed the assault – it was Mueller’. It adds: ‘Mueller did not merely brush his hand against Miss Swift while posing for the photograph. He lifted her skirt and groped her.
‘resolution of this claim will demonstrate that Mueller alone was the perpetrator of the humiliating and wrongful conduct targeted against Miss Swift, and will serve as an example to other women who may resist publicly reliving similar outrageous and humiliating acts.’