Emo poster boy and “Bright Eyes” frontman Conor Oberst has been accused of raping an underage girl before he became famous. The accusations were posted in the comments section of an article on xojane.com about another woman’s abusive past with an un-named rock star (link here). The comment originally started out not naming Oberst, but alleging that he raped her when she was 16 years old and he was in his 20’s.
“I was raped by a “rock star” myself. I was 16 years old, he was in his 20s. No one believed me (he wasn’t even that famous then). No one believed me because I had been his biggest fan for several years at that point, his pictures covered my locker, etc. I guess when I made the accusation, everyone thought it was some sick & twisted way to get… I don’t know, closer to him? My own mother didn’t believe me until recently and it’s 10 years later now. This guy is the poster boy for what was known as “emo” back in the day, everyone thinks he’s so sweet and sensitive and sad, that he could never be the vicious monster he was that night. It makes me sick. I want to out him so bad. Every time I hear his name, I want to tell people what he did. I think people deserve to know. But due to how shit went down with my own friends&family at the time of the assault, the backlash terrifies me. It hurts to constantly see the way people fawn over him as if he’s a God. It’s really hard dealing with your attacker being famous or popular when you know the truth about them but feel no one will listen.
Anyway, I am so sorry that this happened to you but so glad you finally got out.”
Eventually the young woman did confess that Conor Oberst was the musician she was talking about. While these facts are alleged, the author of the comment did say that Oberst’s brother was her English teacher at the time, and that he arranged a meet-and-greet with the rock star after a local show.
At this time, Oberst has not released a statement.
It appears word of the allegations has reached the source.
Here is the statement issued by Oberst’s publicist
“Usually we wouldn’t feel the urge to comment on spurious blog chatter but the recent allegations made about Conor Oberst by an anonymous commenter on the xoJane website are flagrant enough to demand our response. This individual’s accusations are absolutely, unequivocally false. Unfortunately, the internet allows for groundless statements like this to travel the world before the truth has any time to surface. This is a particularly serious and sickening allegation and there is no truth to it. Conor has nothing but abhorrence for the perpetrators of such crimes of sexual violence. The behavior attributed to him by this individual is in direct opposition to his principles. Conor is consulting with a libel attorney regarding this matter.”
link to the original comments here
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