Axl Rose, the lead singer of Guns N’ Roses, was accused of a sexual assault in a lawsuit filed in New York Supreme Court on Wednesday.

The lawsuit, filed by former Penthouse model Sheila Kennedy, claims that Rose sexually assaulted her in his hotel room after meeting her at a New York nightclub in 1989, near the height of his band’s fame. Kennedy is seeking an unspecified amount of compensatory damages for psychological and emotional distress.

“We expect that Sheila Kennedy’s decision to file this suit will be an important turning point for the music industry,” Ann Olivarius, an attorney who represents Kennedy, said in a statement. “Her account is unfortunately all too typical of a culture of violence and sexual misconduct that has been allowed to exist in plain sight for decades. … We hope Sheila’s bravery helps other victims find their voice.”

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Alan S. Gutman, Rose’s attorney, said in a statement Wednesday that “this incident never happened.”

“Though he doesn’t deny the possibility of a fan photo taken in passing, Mr. Rose has no recollection of ever meeting or speaking to the Plaintiff, and has never heard about these fictional allegations prior to today,” Gutman wrote. “Mr. Rose is confident this case will be resolved in his favor.”

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Kennedy claims in her suit that she and Rose met at a New York nightclub. She said he invited her back to his luxury hotel suite, where they were joined by former MTV personality David Andrew “Riki” Rachtman and another unnamed model.

A party unfolded in the room, and Rose allegedly provided cocaine and alcohol. The lawsuit alleges that Rose approached Kennedy outside the bathroom and kissed her, which she didn’t mind since she was “open to sleeping with him if things progressed and if they continued to find each other attractive.”

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Rose allegedly asked Rachtman to clear Rose’s suite, leaving him alone with Kennedy and the second model. The three went into Rose’s bedroom, where Kennedy said she became uncomfortable when Rose started having sex with the other model “in a way that appeared painful” and when Rose seemed to be “encouraging group sex.”

According to the lawsuit, Kennedy went into Rachtman’s room, where she heard Rose violently arguing with the other woman. She said Rachtman told her, “It’s going to get bad.” Rose then stormed down the hallway into Rachtman’s room, grabbed Kennedy and knocked her to the floor, according to the lawsuit.

“While Kennedy was still on the ground, Rose grabbed her by the hair and dragged her across the suite back to his bedroom,” the lawsuit claims. “This was very painful for Kennedy and caused her knees to bleed from scraping on the rug.”

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Kennedy alleges Rose threw her on the bed and used pantyhose to tie her hands behind her back, leaving her “trapped,” and then raped her.

“Rose made no attempt to ask for or check that Kennedy was consenting,” the lawsuit says. “He treated her like property used solely for his sexual pleasure.”

Rose has a long history of legal trouble, including an assault arrest stemming from a riotous concert in the early 1990s. Two of Rose’s former partners, Erin Everly and Stephanie Seymour, claimed the Guns N’ Roses singer subjected them to years of abuse. Everly sued Rose in a Los Angeles civil court in 1994 for assault and battery but settled the claims outside of court.

Kennedy’s lawsuit mentions another alleged incident in 1985, before she met him, in which he was accused of having sex with a 15-year-old girl but was not prosecuted.

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Her new allegations fall under the Adult Survivors Act, a New York law enacted in 2022 that gives adult sexual assault survivors up to one year to file a lawsuit without concern for when the abuse happened. The act was used for a recent lawsuit filed against hip-hop mogul Sean Combs.

The suit claims Kennedy has felt PTSD-like symptoms “whenever she hears Rose’s name or the music of Guns N’ Roses” due to the incident.

This story has been updated.

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