Queen’s Brian May apologises for ‘defending’ Bryan Singer amid sexual abuse allegations

Staff@FarOutMag

Fri 25 January 2019 10:59, UK

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Queen’s lead guitarist has been forced to issue an apology after he was accused of defending director Bryan Singer amid allegations of serious sexual abuse.

Singer, the director of the Oscar-nominated feature film Bohemian Rhapsody, has been accused of having sex with underage boys by four men.

All four allegations have been made by the alleged victims. The news has been unearthed by an investigation which was conducted by the Atlantic magazine. Two of the men, detailing their account under the pseudonyms of Eric and Andy, accused Singer of having sex with them despite being aware that they were under the age of consent. 

Following the allegations, one of May’s fans urged him to unfollow Singer on social media, making the request in the comment section of Instagram. May, seemingly defensive, responded to the person by saying: “look after your own business” before adding “And you need to learn to respect the fact that a man or woman is innocent until proven guilty.”

[MORE] – Director Bryan Singer denies allegations that he raped a 17-year-old boy

Following a public outrage for seemingly defending Singer, May has issued a detailed a lengthy apology.

May claims to have been “naive” for making the comment and claimed that he did not realise the implications of ‘following’ Singer on the social media site – something he has now changed.

Here’s the full apology:

“I’m so sorry that I responded to your post so snappily and inconsiderately. My response was a result of my perception that someone was telling me what to do. I now realise that I was completely wrong in thinking that. You were actually just trying to protect me, for which I thank you. I am mortified to discover the effect my words produced. I had no idea that saying someone was innocent until proven guilty could be interpreted as ‘defending’ Bryan Singer. I had absolutely no intention of doing that. I guess I must be naive, because also it had never occurred to me that ‘following’ a person on Instagram could be interpreted as approving of that person. The only reason I followed Bryan Singer was that we were working with him on a project. That situation came to an end when Mr Singer was sacked during the shooting of the film, but I suppose unfollowing him never occurred to me as a necessity. Now, because of this misunderstanding, I have unfollowed. I’m so sorry. This must have caused you a lot of upset. I wish I could take the comment back, but all I can do is apologise, and hope that my apology will begin to make amends. Sadly, this is all very public, but since I snapped at you in public, it’s only fitting that I should apologise in public. I’m going to try to follow you so we can communicate privately if you want. With love – Bri. —— I should add that this is also a sincere apology to anyone else out there that I inadvertently offended. No such offence was intended and I will be more careful in future.”

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