POPSTAR Duffy has bravely revealed she was held captive and raped in an emotional Instagram post
The Welsh singer, 35, opened up about the horror today to her 22,000 followers as she told how her heart was left "broken".
She posted this image alongside her emotional statement
Duffy, who shot to fame with album Rockferry in 2008, wrote: "You can only imagine the amount of times I thought about writing this. The way I would write it, how I would feel thereafter.
"Well, not entirely sure why now is the right time, and what it is that feels exciting and liberating for me to talk. I cannot explain it. Many of you wonder what happened to me, where did I disappear to and why.
"A journalist contacted me, he found a way to reach me and I told him everything this past summer. He was kind and it felt so amazing to finally speak.
"The truth is, and please trust me I am ok and safe now, I was raped and drugged and held captive over some days. Of course I survived.
"The recovery took time. There’s no light way to say it. But I can tell you in the last decade, the thousands and thousands of days I committed to wanting to feel the sunshine in my heart again, the sun does now shine."
Duffy's moving Instagram statement in full
You can only imagine the amount of times I thought about writing this. The way I would write it, how I would feel thereafter. Well, not entirely sure why now is the right time, and what it is that feels exciting and liberating for me to talk. I cannot explain it.Many of you wonder what happened to me, where did I disappear to and why. A journalist contacted me, he found a way to reach me and I told him everything this past summer. He was kind and it felt so amazing to finally speak.The truth is, and please trust me I am ok and safe now, I was raped and drugged and held captive over some days. Of course I survived. The recovery took time. There’s no light way to say it. But I can tell you in the last decade, the thousands and thousands of days I committed to wanting to feel the sunshine in my heart again, the sun does now shine.You wonder why I did not choose to use my voice to express my pain? I did not want to show the world the sadness in my eyes. I asked myself, how can I sing from the heart if it is broken? And slowly it unbroke.In the following weeks I will be posting a spoken interview. If you have any questions I would like to answer them, in the spoken interview, if I can. I have a sacred love and sincere appreciation for your kindness over the years. You have been friends. I want to thank you for that xDuffyPlease respect this is a gentle move for me to make, for myself, and I do not want any intrusion to my family. Please support me to make this a positive experience.
The Warwick Avenue singer told her fans she chose not to "express my pain" through singing as she "did not want to show the world the sadness in my eyes".
Duffy added: "I asked myself, how can I sing from the heart if it is broken? And slowly it unbroke."
She explained she would be posting an interview in the future and would like to answer any questions.
The brave singer finished the statement - posted alongside a black and white image of herself - by saying: "I have a sacred love and sincere appreciation for your kindness over the years. You have been friends. I want to thank you for that.
"Please respect this is a gentle move for me to make, for myself, and I do not want any intrusion to my family. Please support me to make this a positive experience."
Duffy has now been praised by fans for opening up in the moving statement.
One wrote: "Well done. I’m happy for you being able to speak your mind on this."
While another said: "Duffy, without a doubt, you are a very strong person! and nobody deserves to go through that! I send you a lot of love and that you succeed. We will always be waiting for you."
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Lolita Island part 2? FBI raid New York HQ of fashion mogul Nygard, friend of Prince Andrew, in child sex trafficking probe
Fashion executive and designer Peter Nygard's headquarters and flagship store are seen near Times Square in New York City, New York U.S., February 25, 2020. © REUTERS/Brendan McDermid
The FBI and NYPD have raided the New York offices of fashion exec Peter Nygard as part of a sex trafficking investigation - the fourth such probe of the mogul, who is accused of drugging and raping girls on his Bahamas estate.
Six vans full of agents from the FBI and NYPD descended on Nygard’s Times Square headquarters on Tuesday morning to gather evidence, according to two officers who spoke to the New York Times following the raid. The flamboyant Canadian businessman has been under investigation for allegedly trafficking underage girls by a joint child-exploitation task force comprised of state and federal law enforcement for at least five months.
The criminal probe is separate from a lawsuit filed earlier this month by 10 women alleging Nygard drugged and raped them when they were 14 or 15 years old on his estate in the Bahamas, though at least four of the women involved in that lawsuit have been interviewed by the task force. The suit charges Nygard ran a “sex trafficking ring,” luring “young, impressionable, and often impoverished children and women” to his home by dangling cash and promises of successful modeling careers.
Nygard, the suit claims, threw “pamper parties” on his palatial Bahamas estate, where he spiked girls’ drinks with Rohypnol and raped them. The parties were said to be extravagant affairs featuring massages and jet-ski rides, and the estate itself - with a fake Mayan temple, a disco with a stripper pole, and showy animal sculptures - is reminiscent of Jeffrey Epstein’s Lolita Island. In fact, Nygard is a friend of Epstein’s pal Prince Andrew, and like both men is known for being perpetually surrounded with a bevy of attractive young women. He allegedly kept a database with details about each guest going back to 1987 to help him decide who to prey on.
The 78-year-old mogul denies the charges, blaming his neighbor, hedge-fund billionaire Louis Bacon, who hired his own private detectives to investigate Nygard after a pitched battle between the two that has spanned 25 lawsuits across five jurisdictions and cost both tens of millions of dollars. It has also involved the two flinging wild accusations - of insider trading, Ku Klux Klan membership, murder plots, and now raping teen girls.
But this is not the first time Nygard has found himself the target of a sex trafficking probe. The FBI was investigating him in 2015 and 2017, while the Department of Homeland Security spent nine months looking into him in 2016, though nothing came of any of those probes. The women in the lawsuit all hail from the Bahamas except one, and remain anonymous. Nine women in Canada and the US have also accused him of sexual harassment or assault over the years. The Times spoke with nine women not involved in the lawsuit who claim Nygard had touched them inappropriately, made unwanted advances, or, in at least two cases, raped them.
MSNBC host accuses Trump of hiring friends
of Jeffrey Epstein to defend him
Ken Starr and Alan Dershowitz negotiated Epstein's
sweetheart deal in Florida in 2008
Dershowitz is a known frequent flyer on Epstein's Lolita
Dershowitz was also accused of rape by Virginia Roberts Giuffre
MSNBC, MORNING JOE
JOE SCARBOROUGH
MSNBC host Joe Scarborough strongly criticized the defense team for President Donald Trump, arguing that it was "associated with a pedophile," referring to deceased financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Scarborough, a former Republican congressman who now identifies as an independent, made the remark during his MSNBC show Morning Joe on Monday. The host's criticism arose due to Trump's legal team members Ken Starr, who led the independent counsel investigation into former President Bill Clinton, and Alan Dershowitz, a retired Harvard law professor, both previously having worked for Epstein.
"Let's talk about the selection of a legal team, and talk about a president who has such trouble finding legal representation that he actually got the legal team that helped put together the plea deal, and helped represent Jeffrey Epstein," Scarborough, who regularly criticizes Trump and his administration, said on Monday.
"I can't imagine another president at any time having to select a team that would be associated with a pedophile, who according to recent reports trafficked in young girls as young as 11-years-old," he said.
Epstein died in prison last year after being indicted on charges of sex trafficking. Although he died before being convicted of the alleged crimes leading to the most recent charges, the prominent businessman had previously in 2008 managed to get a plea deal from prosecutors in Florida for related charges, which Dershowitz and Starr helped him secure. Starr has since defended the lenient prosecution his former client Epstein received in Florida.
Virginia Roberts Giuffre, a victim of Epstein's, has also accused Dershowitz directly of abusing her. But the lawyer has denied the allegation and filed a lawsuit against her.
Dershowitz told The New York Times in 2015 that he regretted representing Epstein. "I think I do regret having taken the case in light of everything that has happened since," he said. "If I could give back the money I made in this case and have this episode of my life erased, I'd do it."
Jeffrey Epstein and Alan Dershowitz in an undated photo
RICK FRIEDMAN/CORBIS/GETTY
Although Dershowitz has said publicly that he voted for former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016, he has regularly defended Trump publicly in the wake of numerous investigations into his actions. Speaking to ABC's This Week and CNN's State of the Union on Sunday, the legal scholar argued that Trump should not be removed even if he did all of the things outlined in the Articles of Impeachment.
"They are not articles of impeachment. The articles of impeachment are two non-criminal actions," he asserted to This Week. "You can't charge a president with impeachable conduct if it doesn't fit within the criteria for the Constitution," the lawyer said. He explained, that in his view, the Constitution only allowed for impeachment for explicitly criminal behavior.
But in a resurfaced video of a 1998 interview on Larry King Live, Dershowitz made precisely the opposite argument ahead of Clinton's impeachment. At that time, he argued that an impeachable offense "doesn't have to be a crime" if the president is "somebody who completely corrupts the office."
Former independent counsel Ken Starr answers questions during a discussion held at the American Enterprise Institute on September 18, 2018 in Washington, D.C.
And the Best French Drama - envelope please - The Cesar Awards
French 'Oscars' drama: Director and actress leave Cesar ceremony after Polanski's best director win
Host Florence Foresti at the 45th Cesar Awards ceremony in Paris, France, February 28, 2020.
© REUTERS/Piroschka van de Wouw
French director Celine Sciamma and actress Adele Haenel walked out of the Cesar Awards ceremony after Roman Polanski, convicted in the US of statutory rape, won best director award – while their own film was snubbed.
Video from the ceremony shows Haenel getting up from her seat and angrily storming out of the Salle Pleyel in Paris on Friday evening, followed by Sciamma, after Polanski won for “An Officer And A Spy,” a film about the 19th-century anti-Semitic Dreyfuss affair.
Valerie Complex♓️♎️♋️✔
@ValerieComplex
Adele Haenel and Celine Sciamma left the #Cesar2020 awards in the middle of the show bc they awarded a RAPIST (Polanski) for best director.
Make no mistake, this isnt earned, its retribution for them being so vocal about that sick, twisted shit happening in France https://twitter.com/haenelswift/status/1233532667540496385 …
lauren MERCI ADELE
@haenelswift
adèle haenel there are no words for how much i admire you
Sciamma’s “Portrait Of A Lady On Fire,” a period romance set in the 18th century and starring Hanael, won only the cinematography prize out of ten nominations, though it had previously won at Cannes for best screenplay.
Hanael was further snubbed when the best actress award went to Anais Desmoustier for her work in “Alice And The Mayor.”
Sciamma has been an outspoken feminist her entire career, while Haenel became a prominent face of France’s #MeToo movement after accusing director Christophe Ruggia of sexually abusing her since she was 12.
Polanski did not attend the ceremony himself, saying he feared for his safety and wished to avoid being “lynched.” None of the cast or crew of his film was on hand, either. A sizable crowd, organized by the group Osez le Feminisme, gathered outside the venue to protest that Polanski had even been nominated, in twelve categories no less.
The French-born Polish director pleaded guilty to the statutory rape of a 13-year-old in the US back in 1977, then fled to Europe before his sentencing, to avoid prison time. He was expelled from the US Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences in 2018, amid the MeToo furore touched off by accusations against his long-time rival Harvey Weinstein.
Photos and video from the scene showed protesters using flares and police deploying tear gas to disperse them.
Nino Subiaz
@NinoSubiaz
Vives violences aux César. Les barrières de protection manquent de céder. Le tapis rouge suffoque sous les fumigènes #Cesar2020 #Polanski
Alice Coffin✔
@alicecoffin
Enfermez Polanski, liberez nos camarades. s’il y a des celebrites à l’interieur qui veulent donner un coup de main, n’http://h.es .i.t.ez. pas
The entire management of the Cesars resigned two weeks ago, saying that they wanted to “honor those who made cinema in 2019, to regain serenity and make the cinema festival a celebration.” The mass resignation did not affect any of the nominations, however.
Hundreds of film professionals also published an open letter recently, accusing the French film academy of “elitism” and bemoaning its lack of “diversity.”
This year’s big winner – in best picture, people’s choice, editing and best male newcomer categories – was “Les Miserables.” Rather than an adaptation of the eponymous Victor Hugo novel, it was a social justice film about police violence against French citizens of African or Arabic origin, directed by Ladj Ly, the son of immigrants from Mali.
She was a running prodigy. He was the most powerful man in track. How her promising career unravelled.
Dave Scott-Thomas ran the University of Guelph’s prestigious track program for over 20 years. Now one of his former athletes says he groomed her for sex. More than a decade after school officials first heard her story, he’s been dismissed – and faces new allegations
MICHAEL DOYLE
SPECIAL TO THE GLOBE AND MAIL
Megan Brown, shown at a stadium in Coquitlam, B.C., is a former student athlete who says her coach groomed her for a sexual relationship when she was a teenager. Now, she is speaking out against the power dynamics in a male-dominated running world in which predatory behaviour can go unchecked. MELISSA RENWICK/THE GLOBE AND MAIL
Dave Scott-Thomas found Megan Brown at a crucial moment in both their lives. It was the fall of 2001. He was 38 and searching for greatness to pair with his grand ambitions as head coach of both the University of Guelph’s track and cross-country teams, as well as his own club, Speed River.
He’d been a student at the school, then bounced around as a teacher and volunteer coach in Kingston, Ont., and Victoria. In 1997, he returned to Guelph with a bold vision for his alma mater. He convinced the school, at the time considered irrelevant in the track world, to hire him.
In his first year as head coach, Mr. Scott-Thomas was paid only a $3,000 honorarium. But it came with something more valuable: unilateral control. Immediately, his wiry frame, like a drawn spring waiting to snap, commanded the Guelph running community.
Mr. Scott-Thomas first encountered Megan Brown when she was 16 years old. Slashing through a muddy, maze-like cross-country course in a suburb of Ottawa, she was unfailing, with an intensity seldom seen in a child. She was alone – 19 seconds ahead of the next competitor at the OFSAA cross-country championships, one of the biggest meets in North America. The lead seemed like an eternity in the four-kilometre junior race, and out in that forest, Mr. Scott-Thomas knew he was watching something rare. Ms. Brown was a virtual unknown, having started running a little more than a year earlier, and she was dominating everyone. OFSAA champions often went on to become Olympians, but Ms. Brown was so new to running that she didn’t even own cross-country spikes.
Mr. Scott-Thomas was in luck: the mysterious prodigy went to St. James Catholic High School, just up the road from his office in Guelph. He’d found his first raw yet pure talent. She would be his to mould.
But Ms. Brown did not go on to lead the University of Guelph to a championship. She did not represent Canada at the Olympic Games. Instead, it was the beginning of a relationship that would destroy both Ms. Brown’s and Mr. Scott-Thomas’s careers in running, albeit years apart.
Dave Scott-Thomas, shown at cross-country championships in Waterloo in 2015. GEORGE AITKIN
Last month, in a move that stunned the tight-knit running community, the University of Guelph dismissed Mr. Scott-Thomas, one of the most celebrated and powerful athletics coaches in Canada. Few details were released, and many were left wondering what went on in Guelph, which Mr. Scott-Thomas had built into the running capital of Canada.
In the fall, the university received a complaint about Mr. Scott-Thomas’s conduct from a student athlete on the national team, made up of elite runners who represent Canada internationally. The university later alluded to a previous allegation of misconduct, which took place more than a decade ago.
Now 35, Ms. Brown has decided to end her silence, alleging Mr. Scott-Thomas groomed her as a 17-year-old for a sexual relationship that ended abruptly with her departure from the university less than a year later. Inspired by Mary Cain, a prominent American track athlete who shocked the sporting world last fall with her story of trauma and abuse at the hands of a powerful male coach, Ms. Brown joins a growing number of women whose stories have provoked a reckoning in running and beyond. Ms. Brown said she believes that an insular, male-dominated system can empower predatory behaviour and fears that many female runners have been manipulated and abused, but were shamed into silence. “Until you reclaim your power and step out of an abusive dynamic,” she said, “you can’t see it for what it really is.”
Ms. Brown spoke with The Globe and Mail in a series of interviews that began in early December, weeks before Mr. Scott-Thomas was fired. The Globe has since interviewed more than 70 athletes and coaches, spanning Mr. Scott-Thomas’s career, and reviewed correspondence and university documents that shed further light on Ms. Brown’s experience and those of others.
The rest of the story is very much in depth and disturbing. Please read it at the Globe and Mail.
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