Rock legend Axl Rose was accused of sexual assault in a bombshell complaint filed Wednesday. The complaint alleges that the Guns N’ Roses frontman carried out the attack in 1989, when he was “at the peak of his commercial success.”
Sheila Kennedy, Penthouse’s “Pet of the Year” in 1983, alleges in the complaint filed in the Supreme Court of New York that Rose “violently” assaulted her in a New York City hotel room.
She said she met Rose at a nightclub before he invited her back to his hotel, where a consensual sexual encounter quickly spun out of control.
“The encounter quickly became not just uncomfortable but disturbing,” the complaint reads, adding that Rose appeared to be encouraging group sex, which Kennedy was not interested in.
After she left the room, the complaint alleges, Rose became “furious” and “loomed threateningly” over her before grabbing her by the robe and knocking her to the floor.
“While Kennedy was still on the ground, Rose grabbed her by the hair and dragged her across the suite back to his bedroom. This was very painful for Kennedy and caused her knees to bleed from scraping on the rug,” the complaint says.
Rose is then accused of throwing her on a bed and tying her hands behind her back with pantyhose while he was in a “sexual, volatile rage” and she “was trapped.” It was then, she alleges, that he assaulted her, “forcibly penetrating” her anus without consent.
“He treated her like property used solely for his sexual pleasure,” the complaint says, adding that Kennedy was left with “lifelong emotional, physical, psychological, and financial impacts.”