As Model New are getting ready to hit the highway for a controversial reunion tour subsequent month, new allegations of grooming and inappropriate habits in the direction of minors have surfaced towards the band’s frontman, Jesse Lacey.
In a Medium submit revealed on Friday, April 4th, a lady utilizing the title Aiyana alleged that Lacey started grooming her in 2006, when she was 15 and he was in his late ‘20s — a narrative mirroring the disturbing allegations that emerged towards the Model New singer final decade, which initiated their years-long hiatus.
In her submit, Aiyana explains how she met Lacey after a Model New present, and shortly started to speak with him commonly. Nonetheless, his alleged habits rapidly grew regarding, with inappropriate hugs, lewd feedback, and a disturbing sample of manipulation. He allegedly used “allure and calculated trust-building” to win-over Aiyana’s mom, and often made feedback about Aiyana’s age, like “I want you weren’t 15 years outdated” and “the reality is I’m in love with you, however you’re simply not sufficiently old for me to marry you but,” she says.
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Moreover, Lacey appeared to make use of his place of energy and fame to control the phrases of his contact with Aiyana, who explains that after one other fan hacked an account owned by her and despatched Lacey screenshots of the 2’s interactions, he started pressuring her and her mom to maintain the connection personal, suggesting that if she weren’t discreet sufficient, she would lose entry to him and the band.
“You’ve develop into an in depth pal, one in every of my finest pals, really,” Lacey allegedly instructed Aiyana on the time, “and though we perceive our relationship, others won’t with out extra context.”
Many different situations are described within the submit, together with inappropriate habits from others within the Model New camp — like a tour supervisor who messaged Aiyana and her pal to say “You two are so cute — Jesse and I had been simply speaking about how we need to snuggle with you each on the tour bus.”
In 2017, Lacey acknowledged the sooner allegations towards him, and indicated that they had been true, vowing to work to “be higher.” Nonetheless, there hasn’t been a lot public indication that any “progress” has been made in regard to bringing justice to Lacey’s alleged victims, and now, the band is gearing as much as return to the stage in full power.
Therefore why Aiyana is now sharing her story. In her view, Lacey “shouldn’t be allowed” to tour with the group, writing, “To my data, he has but to call particular behaviors that had been problematic — just like the grooming, manipulation, and coercion — and he by no means reached out to the victims to aim any type of restitution… Defending him by claiming he’s ‘carried out his time in remedy’ suggests that private progress absolves public hurt, which it doesn’t.”
To that finish, Aiyana’s new allegations actually describe public hurt. Although her experiences had been evidently not as explicitly bodily as the opposite public tales, the trauma allegedly inflicted by Lacey left an immense influence.
“Analysis reveals that grooming at a younger age will increase vulnerability to future abuse, and that proved true in my case,” Aiyana writes. “The harm he brought about would stick with me for years to return — resulting in struggles with promiscuity, shallowness points, and the event of advanced PTSD (one thing I’m nonetheless in remedy for).”
Now, Aiyana’s story has amplified the general public outcry towards Model New’s return, which is distinguished sufficient that venues internet hosting the band needed to disable social media feedback.
