Melanie Martinez’s Rape Accuser Timothy Heller Speaks Out: ‘She Dug Her Own Grave’
On Tuesday (December 5), Timothy Heller, a former friend of Melanie Martinez who claims the singer raped her during a sleepover two years ago, spoke to Newsweek about her relationship with the pop star, as well as the harrowing sexual assault accusations she made against Martinez in a series of tweets earlier this week.
Heller told the publication that the pop artist pressured her into sharing personal details about her sexual preferences before suggesting they play a game with handcuffs.
"I was laughing along at first," Heller, who shared a photo of Martinez wearing pink handcuffs during the alleged game on June 25, 2015, revealed. "But Melanie was so serious."
Later, Heller claims Martinez touched her intimately, including penetrating her with a sex toy and performing oral sex while Heller "lay still, in shock, completely not reciprocating."
Heller, a singer-songwriter and the former frontwoman of Dresses, a band that opened for Martinez on her 2014 tour, added that Martinez's "fans see her as this angel who understands them," which led her to assume "no one was going to take me seriously if I explained what she did [to me]."
After the alleged assault, Heller says she had internalized guilt for years, "invalidating" her experience because Martinez "was not a man."
According to Heller, Martinez eventually ended their friendship via text message after consulting with a psychic, writing to Heller, "I just can't have anything stopping me or distracting me from getting where I need to get...I don't have time to have those distracting things in my life. The next couple of years are pretty crucial for me and I need to focus."
Heller also shared that she believes the former Voice contestant and Cry Baby singer tried to keep her story from coming out back in November, after Heller tweeted, "What if I have my own story of abuse but I’m scared to ruin the person's life and I still love them in a f---ed up way and the public really really loves them?"
Minutes after Heller tweeted, she claims Martinez attempted to contact her—the first time the in more than a year—over the phone.
"I started sobbing when I saw [Melanie] was calling me, and I blocked her," Heller said, adding that Martinez also tried to contact her through her boyfriend, Mikey, by sending him several text messages.
Early Tuesday morning, hours after Heller sent her initial tweet sharing her story, Martinez denied Heller's sexual assault allegations on Twitter, writing that Heller "never said no to what we chose to do together."
"First of all, I did say 'no,' multiple times," Heller told Newsweek, adding, "But even if I hadn't, that doesn't mean I wanted it. She dug her own grave saying, 'she didn't say no'. That's not consent."
A representative for Martinez told Newsweek "Melanie stands by her statement."
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