Nick Carter—yes, that Nick Carter from the Backstreet Boys—is once again under fire. A new lawsuit accuses him of r*ping a then-teenage girl, ignoring her pleas for protection, and knowingly transmitting multiple sexually transmitted infections that resulted in cervical cancer.
If you’re counting, this isn’t the first time he’s been accused of sexual violence. It’s not even the second. And once again, his legal team is denying everything and painting the survivor as unstable and attention-seeking. Sound familiar?
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The Allegations Against Nick Carter
The survivor, Laura Penly, says she was 19 years old in 2005 when she met Carter. According to her, the two had sex multiple times over the course of two weeks in Los Angeles. She repeatedly asked him to use protection—he refused. Claimed he was clean. He wasn’t.
Penly says she’d never had unprotected sex before meeting him. One night, she told him she didn’t want to have sex. His response? That’s “the only reason” she was there. Then, according to her, he picked her up off the floor, threw her onto the bed, and raped her. No protection. No consent. Afterwards, he warned her to stay silent—because, in his words, “no one would believe you.”
She later tested positive for HPV, gonorrhea, and chlamydia. The HPV led to stage 2 cervical cancer.
Carter reached out months later to apologize. She agreed to meet. He allegedly assaulted her again.
The Legal Response (aka the PR Damage Control Machine)
Carter’s lawyers deny everything. They say he doesn’t even remember her. They’ve labeled the lawsuit a “smear campaign,” and claim the accuser has financial issues, legal problems, and an “agenda.” Classic.
If this sounds familiar, it’s because it is. In 2022, Carter was accused of raping a 17-year-old girl with autism on a tour bus in 2001. In 2017, singer Melissa Schuman said he raped her in 2003. There are more women. There are more stories. And there’s still no accountability.
But sure, let’s worry about protecting a boyband legacy.
This article was originally written in Spanish by Fernando Eslava in Cultura Colectiva.
