Backstreet Boys member Nick Carter sued for alleged sexual battery

Backstreet Boys member Nick Carter is being sued for sexual battery after an alleged incident with a teenager in 2001.

According to the lawsuit, Shannon Ruth was 17 when Carter, then 21, invited her on to the band's tour bus after a concert in Tacoma, Washington.

Ms Ruth, who has autism and cerebral palsy, said he offered her a drink he called "VIP juice", which she now believes contained alcohol.

The court documents, seen by Sky News, allege that Carter then led Ms Ruth to the tour bus bathroom and ordered her to perform oral sex on him, despite her crying.

She alleges that he then took her to a bed and continued to sexually assault her while she begged him to stop, later telling her that nobody would believe her if she spoke publicly about it.

According to the court papers, Ms Ruth had been a virgin before she met Carter, but she contracted HPV, a sexually-transmitted infection, as a result of the encounter.

In a news conference this week, she said: "Even though I'm autistic and live with cerebral palsy, I believe that nothing has affected me more or had a more lasting impact on my life than what Nick Carter did and said to me."

Carter, now 42, had "tried to scare me into silence", she said, adding that he had been "nasty and threatening".

Carter has not addressed the claims but his lawyer Michael Holtz told NBC: "This claim about an incident that supposedly took place more than 20 years ago is not only legally meritless but also entirely untrue.

"Unfortunately for several years now, Ms Ruth has been manipulated into making false allegations about Nick, and those allegations have changed repeatedly and materially over time.

"No one should be fooled by a press stunt orchestrated by an opportunistic lawyer.

"There is nothing to this claim whatsoever, which we have no doubt the courts will quickly realise."

Ms Ruth is seeking more than $30,000 (£24,000) in compensatory and punitive damages.