CONTENT WARNING: The following article discusses alleged rape.
Tool and A Perfect Circle frontman Maynard James Keenan has responded to an allegation of rape made against him on social media earlier this week.
The claim, made by an anonymous Twitter account called ‘IWas17HeWas36’ on Saturday, 23rd June, accused Keenan of raping the account owner in 2000, while Keenan was 36 years old and the alleged victim was 17.
In a tweet today, Keenan responded to the accusation by telling his Twitter followers:
“Many thanks to those of you who saw right through this despicable false claim that only does damage to the #metoo movement.
“And shame on those of you who perpetuate this destructive clickbait. As for my delayed but un-required response, I had my phone off. You should try it.”
https://twitter.com/mjkeenan/status/1012425461845016576
‘IWas17HeWas36’, who has chosen to remain anonymous, had accused Keenan of assaulting her aboard A Perfect Circle’s tour bus following a show.
She said Keenan asked her how old she was, to which she said “I’m 17”.
“Then he said, ‘I can’t talk to you here, let’s go watch a movie’ and he pulled me away from everyone and onto a tour bus,” the user wrote.
“He lead [sic] me to a bed in the back on the bus and closed the door. He put on Fear And Loathing in Las Vegas. I decided to watch a few minutes and at least have a weird story to tell my boyfriend later. Yes, 17 year olds can be naïve. This is why older men target teenage girls.
“He started rubbing my neck. At this point, I fell silent. He talked about the film, Johnny Depp, and Hunter S. Thompson while he started taking his pants off. All I could do was sit there, looking at the movie, unable to move.
“I froze so he had to move my body into a missionary position. He pulled off my cargo pants. He forced himself in- there was no attempt at ‘warming up’. I mention this because this wasn’t about sex. This was about raping me as fast as he could.”
‘IWas17HeWas36’ also claimed that Keenan gave her a sexually transmitted disease. Following her allegations, a number of other women posted claims of sexual misconduct by Keenan on social media.
‘IWas17HeWas36’ is yet to publicly respond to Keenan’s tweet.
