Case for Melissa Schuman | Cassandra Complex

The Case for Melissa Schuman Series

Actress and singer Melissa Schuman accuses Nick Carter of raping her when she was 18. This series looks at the issues to determine who in fact is telling the truth.

This article is dedicated to exploring the accusations made by Silence Breaker Melissa Schuman. I had the honor of e-meeting Melissa Schuman about a week ago and I in no way know her personally. This is in fact a good thing because the purpose here is to provide an impartial assessment of the situation.

It is also relevant I had never heard of the accused in this matter either. My sole interest in Nick Carter relates to the crimes I believe he has committed. Having gone over Melissa’s claims it is my firm conclusion that her claims are wholly truthful.

It is important to understand that these events follow predictable patterns. There are some variances that apply at an individual level, but the underlying dynamics always conform to the same basic considerations. The key is to take all the various indicators for and against and apply them together to the macro consideration or as many like to say, the big picture.

In this case it is helpful to look at the offender first as this provides a useful context when we apply Melissa’s statement to the consideration. Nick Carter is a popular celebrity who forms part of a well-known band. At the time of the allegations on record to date Nick Carter was a very handsome man. Those looks combined with his brooding image would certainly make him popular with his female fans.

In short Nick Carter is a man who could have almost anything he wanted and the power to obtain it. The key word in that is almost. As the Roman Emperors taught us in history, power corrupts. Those who have nearly everything often go on to lust for that which they are denied. It seems evident this has happened in this case.

The evidence to support that is found in the fact that there are multiple victims many of whom all seem to share the characteristics of being highly attractive, young and unobtainable. Nick Carter is a man who would have had a small army of female fans who would have liked nothing more than to be his friend for the evening.

It seems evident that the motive behind the assaults having regard for those facts was simply an innate desire to take what he could not have. Acts of evil always boil down to base motivations.

We must now turn our attention to the victim in this matter Melissa Schuman. We are fortunate in that we have Melissa’s detailed account of events in the pubic forum.

Melissa Schuman's Disclosure

Melissa Schuman is also a highly attractive individual who also had a lot of options as far as potential suitors went. Melissa was clearly a young woman with dreams, and she had made many of her dreams a reality. Melissa also had dreams about how she would enter marriage a virgin, a dream that reflects a core component of her Christian faith.

Melissa was brought up in a loving Christian household, was clearly goal orientated and self-disciplined. It was these components that formed the basis of her success. Melissa was successful, beautiful and standing on the cusp of transitioning into the woman she wanted to be.

There was absolutely no reason for Melissa Schuman to deviate from or ignore the tenets and beliefs that formed the core of who she was as a person. Christians take matters of sex extremely seriously and are extremely resistant to temptation. No matter how much they feel the desire they will not fold to it because to do so would irrevocably alter everything they believe about self and life.

The young Christian woman dreams of a deeply intense ratified union in the eyes of God. To them it is a sacred matter that ties in with their entire moral mindset and their hopes and fears as they relate to the afterlife.

According to Melissa’s account at the time of the assault she was 18 years old, a virgin and committed to her Christian beliefs. Melissa states this was well known and of that there can be no doubt. Young Christian people make no secret of their will in the matter. For one thing the faith requires a vocal recognition of Christ and the other big one is that advertising the fact wards off most of those with incompatible views on life.

This what made Melissa Schuman unobtainable to Nick Carter even if he managed to attract her to him. As far as Melissa was concerned the only man who would succeed in getting her to act on her desires was her future husband for all the reasons outlined above.

We can also see that Melissa is very much a woman who can apply a remarkable focus and discipline in other ways. When Melissa first disclosed publicly, she noted a lack of support.

Circumstances placed Melissa mostly alone in the wider sense against a powerful opposition. This would have defeated the average person. Instead Melissa is acting at the forefront for other victims of Nick Carter. These are the things that tell a lot about a person.

So here we can see the basic state of mind of Melissa Schuman at the time based on her account. This is the key to answering the questions. One must understand what it meant to BE Melissa Schuman not what we think we would do if we were her.

It is simply not tenable that a Christian virgin would turn her back on the core beliefs that underpin her identity in its entirety to become a notch on Nick Carters headboard. In my lifetime I have known exactly one Christian teen to make that kind of decision and she turned her back on the entire faith.

Melissa Schuman’s primary peers would be her fellow Christians and getting up in public to talk about something as intensely personal as the sexual violation suffered in such a conservative group setting is no small act.

Melissa is also a celebrity and would have been well aware that she would face all kinds of abuse when presenting her truth. It is that commitment to the truth that drives a person to endure the kind of abuse Melissa and the other Breakers have suffered.

Melissa Schuman presents as a well balanced and kind individual who is committed and thinks of others. The idea that she would parade a lie such as this in world media in front of her peers and family is frankly ridiculous.

In my article Framed I detail the evidence that shows false accuser Jimmy Bennett for what he is. I make a point there of noting his vague and cliche multiple versions of events. Melissa Schuman on the other hand provides a very detailed description of events and the contrast is stark.

The Assault

On her blog Melissa Schuman has a published article detailing what happened to her at the hands of Nick Carter. The first thing that stands out to me is that she stated that they kissed. This is a strong indicator of truth. False accusers avoid any statement that they think might detract from their lie. Unless they have really been there a person cannot fabricate the nuances of the sexual assault consideration.

Unmarried Christians are allowed within their faith to kiss having regard of course for appropriate decorum. The rules are very much a Happy Days affair. Kiss as much as you want but good luck getting further than that. It is of no surprise at all that Melissa kissed Nick Carter. It is very much within the norm and the fact it has been disclosed is a demonstration of honesty.

Blog extract

"After kissing for a moment, he took my hand and brought me into the bathroom adjacent to his office. He shut the door and we continued to kiss. I asked him what we were doing in there. He didn’t respond and continued to kiss me. He then pick (sic) me up, put me on the bathroom counter and started to unbutton my pants. I told him I didn’t want to go any further."

We see here that Carter has changed the dynamic and Melissa has lodged firstly her query and then her objection. Consent is being denied. Being stripped naked in a bathroom by an acquaintance is a far cry from sex in the marriage bed. The contrast between the acts, having regard for Melissa’s core belief system, is extremely indicative.

He told me, “don’t worry. I won’t tell anybody.”

"I told him that’s not why I didn’t want to do it. He took off my pants anyway and then proceeded to perform oral sex on me. I told him to stop, but he didn’t. So I turned off the bathroom light so I wouldn’t see anything. He kept turning the light back on because he told me he wanted to look at me. I remember thinking at that point that maybe after this he will just stop, but he didn’t."

Carter’s statement demonstrates that not only is he aware of Melissa’s views on sexual matters it is also indicative that he was going to rely on Melissa being too ashamed to speak of the event.

We see here that he performed oral sex on Melissa. This is a very intimate act and the thought of it let alone the physical impact of it would be enough to throw just about any virgin into a loop. Add to that the fact that Melissa who woke up that morning a Christian committed to marriage is now suddenly denuded in a bathroom without her consent and it is very clear that is a truckload to process and respond to.

The part of that extract that stands out to me is how Melissa describes how she kept turning the bathroom light off. This is the kind of detail that cannot be faked. What this demonstrates is that Melissa was in a state of physical and psychological overload, but she could not physically escape.

There is no doubt that Melissa would have been in a state of total turmoil. A potent mix of fear, panic and sheer mortification would have been hammering through her on a surging wave of adrenaline. Melissa could not escape physically so she turned to the only response she had left which was to try and hide in the dark. Even this was denied to her.

It is those parts of a disclosure that tell the truth of an event and demonstrate the true horror of these situations. Melissa Schuman entered that building as a confident young woman with an innocent love of life to find herself suddenly reduced to a situation where she was akin to a bird struggling to fly free from the claws of a cat.

Like a bird desperately flapping its wings as its pinned in place Melissa reached for that light switch as her only means to escape even part of her nightmare. Right there is a depiction of desperate primal fear and it is this kind of detail that a false accuser could never ever come up with.

Melissa states that someone knocked on the door, so Carter moved her to another bathroom and asked her to perform oral sex on him. To be clear Melissa did not concede to his demands. Melissa never performed oral sex on Nick Carter. Carter took her hand and placed it on his genitals, again against her will.

We see that Melissa was disgusted by the act and that she was being forced against her will. Carter essentially compelled Melissa to perform a sexual act upon him which is an offense in its own right.

"I felt scared and trapped. He was visually and clearly growing very angry and impatient with me. I couldn’t leave. It was evident to me, that i couldn’t leave. He was stronger and much bigger than me, and there was no way I would be able to open that door or have anyone help me. My friend couldn’t help me, I didn’t even know where she was. So when he placed my hand on his penis my thought was the only way to get out was to get him to finish what he had started. That’s where I saw myself, my reflection, watching myself do something that I was sicken by. Watching myself be assaulted, forced to engage in an act against my will."

Again, we see a detailed description of fear, but the standout comment is how Melissa talks of her reflection in the mirror. It is at that point Melissa is reaching an understanding at the primal level that the young woman who walked into that building is gone and this stranger she now sees looking back at her is the face of her future. Again, we see that what cannot be faked.

Same as before his appetite was still not satisfied and now took me to the bedroom. It was late. The apartment was now dark and all you could hear was the remaining music in the living room. He threw me on the bed and climbed on top of me. Again, I told him that I was a virgin and I didn’t want to have sex. I told him that I was saving myself for my future husband. I said it over and over again. He whispered in my ear as to entice me,

“I could be your husband.”

"He was relentless, refusing to take my no’s for an answer. He was heavy, too heavy to get out from under him. Then I felt it, he put something inside of me. I asked him what it was and he whispered in my ear once more,"

“it’s all me baby.”

"It was done. The one thing I had held as a virtue had been ruined. I went limp, turned my head to my left and decided I would just go to sleep now. I wanted to believe it was some sort of nightmare I was dreaming up."

Detail abounds in Melissa’s description of the rape that concluded Carter’s assault on her. The statement depicts a struggle before succumbing to resigned and defeated weariness and concludes with a depiction of psychological desolation and the inability to summon the will to even get up.

Melissa had her dream taken from her in an act of rape and made to feel so worthless that she ceased to care about trying to escape and retreated into sleep instead. Here we see a young woman who was vibrant and full of life reduced to a shell with her love of life dead inside of her. She has surrendered her love of self like the bird that gives up at the last when it realizes there is no escaping those gleeful claws.

The stand out statement here is where Melissa asks him what is inside of her. That is the type of comment made by the defiled innocent. Melissa has no sexual experience whatsoever, was not anticipating sex and was in a state of complete violation.

It brings to mind a case I read about where a young boy was raped and he asked the offender afterwards if he had done something wrong. The innocent's psychological experience is beyond their immediate comprehension of their situation and they reach out for any kind of understanding.

As mentioned, the Melissa Schuman that got up that morning was later stripped in a bathroom, sexually assaulted, taken to another room and compelled to perform a sexual act and finally taken to the bedroom and forcibly raped.

Melissa’s statement paints a vivid and compelling picture of fear, disgust and desolation. These are the components that are never present in a false accuser’s statement because they had to have been there to know.

Aftermath

The purpose of these articles is to determine the truth of the accusations made by singer and actress Melissa Schuman against Back Street Boy band member Nick Carter.

In Part One I looked at the statement provided by Melissa as it pertains to the primary event.

Does the account provide details that credibly reflect Melissa’s individual circumstances? Yes.

Does the account provide telling details of how Melissa experienced the event? Yes

Does the account fit within the presentation presented by rape victims generally? Yes.

Essentially Melissa has provided a highly credible and very coherent statement and it is my solidly held belief that the first part of the test has been well met. I cannot find a single point of contention that indicates that Melissa is not telling the truth.

The process does not end there. I will now examine the aftermath of the rape and apply the next consideration. Does Melissa’s statement demonstrate credible and expected secondary damage as a result of what happened to her?

Blog Extract

"I didn’t tell her. I didn’t want to even admit what happened was real to myself. Over the next few weeks I withdrew further and further from my friends and family and they noticed. I still didn’t tell anyone."

Melissa makes a very telling statement about her family and friends. The issue of friends and family is a very common issue especially for younger victims.

The next step is to consider why any survivor would have issues with friends and family. The reasons are also generic and predictable.

General Considerations

A fear of upsetting the family.

Intense shame and or fear of the offender.

A fear of losing what little control is left.

A desire to avoid having to deal with other people’s emotional reactions.

A general inability to face the situation.

Individual Considerations

Melissa is a Christian

Melissa was 18 years old and was a virgin

Melissa is a celebrity

The offender is a celebrity

After applying Melissa’s statements to the above considerations and combining them together, we can see strong evidence of credible secondary damage. There are two particular demons that Melissa is facing as far as this aspect of the secondary damage consideration is concerned.

Drivers of Secondary Damage

Post-Traumatic stress symptomatology

Chronic cognitive dissonance.

Impact Points

Family environment

Social environment

Employment

Fears Around Future Marriage

Applicable statement

Melissa is speaking of her roommate initially as they drove back home the next day. We can see here that Melissa is retreating into the first refuge of the survivor.

Translation: “That did not actually happen to me and as long as I don’t acknowledge to myself that it did this agony I am holding inside will go away and I can have my life back.”

Why else did Melissa not tell anyone? Surely she would have immediately told her family and gone to the police is the so called reasoning from the cheap seats.

To address this question, we must now “be” Melissa Schuman. We do this by taking her statements and looking at the situation through her eyes.

Melissa has been through a degrading and violent assault experiencing huge levels of stress and fear and pain. At the end of it Melissa lays there grieving for her lost virtue as she contemplates the living nightmare that is now her life.

I will now present that nightmare in detail.

Cognitive Dissonance (Generally)

The day before, Melissa woke up a virgin with dreams of marriage in a world where she had an innocent love of life and was successful and confident.

The next time she wakes up she is the woman she saw in the mirror during the assault, a woman defiled and a woman who now knows to her bones that the monsters are real, and that sense of safety and confidence once bedrock is now as ethereal as smoke.

Melissa’s life is now one of cognitive dissonance, subterfuge and pain. We see it first with the roommate. The roommate states what a great time it all was. Not so for Melissa. What was she going to say?

It was awesome right up until Nick Carter raped her? So, Melissa now finds herself having to do something quite alien to her nature and experience.

She has to create the illusion she was OK to avoid her roommate seeing something was wrong.

Melissa is an intelligent person. She will be aware that the moment she tells anyone what little control she has over her situation will be lost to her.

She is already desperate to pretend it did not happen. How does she explain something she can barely comprehend herself? What will Nick Carter do if the word gets out?

Cognitive Dissonance (Future Marriage)

The first thing Melissa is facing is that she is now in a world where her life choices have gone from good choice / bad choice to bad choice / worse choice. Take the loss of her virtue. Before she was raped Melissa had the goal of being a virgin when she married.

Melissa would have had her thoughts and dreams as to how that night would play out. Now she faces that night with two choices. She goes to bed with her husband without telling him and faking what was once her dream or telling him beforehand.

The first choice means she has to start her marriage on a lie that she must maintain until the day she dies which will prove impossible anyway.

The second means they both go that marriage bed with the knowledge of the assault and how will she not hear Nick Carter’s voice in her mind whispering, “I could be your husband”?

So, we can see the deeply personal violation Melissa has suffered. Nick Carter took more than her body, he raped who she was as a person at every level.

Carter had succeeded in violating the deepest recesses of Melissa’s core belief systems. The infection is already working its evil. Yet that was a concern for the future. More immediate concerns were already in play.

Cognitive Dissonance (Family)

The situation can only get worse. Melissa is close to her family. She has four sisters and her parents. There is a dynamic in the family relationship of love that speaks of safety and stability. Melissa will know that when her family find out they will be devastated.

The family dynamic will be flooded with shock, pain and grief and Melissa loves her family. She does not want to bring them pain and stress. Even though it is not her fault, victims often cannot escape the feeling they are responsible for bringing the horror of it all into their loved ones lives.

Crushed under the weight of a feeling of responsibility for something that was not her fault, still struggling to even admit the event happened to her, Melissa is now enduring the tearing claws of cognitive dissonance as it rages unchecked through every aspect of her life.

The family dynamic has changed despite her silence. The family have noticed the change in her. They will likely have seen something in Melissa’s eyes that was not there before, but they would have not known what it was they were looking at.

Melissa is aware that her family is noticing there is something wrong and she is aware that she is the only one of them that knows the truth.

A monster called Nick Carter had entered her life and was now with her everywhere. Not only that this nightmare that was the result of his actions was a contagion that was infecting the lives of the people closest to Melissa.

Cognitive Dissonance (Social / Friends)

Cognitive dissonance now plagues nearly every interaction. In her previous life she would have done things like talk with her girlfriends about what they all hoped and expected their lives as married women would be for them.

Christians tend to be socially active with a group of people who are generally also Christians. Christians do not tend to live compartmentalized lives. The Christian component of their lives touches on them at every level.

Now when she sits among her peers Melissa knows she has changed but her peers do not.

Not only is she now outside of the dynamic that once connected her to her peers their comments and banter on the subject of marriage now hurt her deeply.

This is an example of applying the individual consideration in this instance that Melissa is a Christian.

To truly understand what Melissa is telling us in her statement we need to apply all the considerations to the question at hand.

When we apply the accepted understanding of what rape victims have reported for decades to the individual consideration, it is wholly evident that Melissa would have been suffering serious and chronic psychological stress.

We see here the cognitive dissonance and the crisis of faith it would surely invoke. I have seen no information that would allow me to draw the conclusion Melissa suffered a complete loss of faith.

What is certain however is that Melissa’s ability to express her faith and relate to others at that level was savagely compromised as was her ability to take comfort from it.

Cognitive Dissonance (Pathology)

Cognitive dissonance is a highly stressful state of mind to endure. The only way to relieve it is to change what is required to eliminate it. However, Melissa has no choices that she can make that do not result in more liability. Bad choice / worse choice applies.

For example, before Melissa disclosed she was subjected to cognitive dissonance that was confined within herself. The issue is that others were still treating her as the Melissa they knew, not the Melissa she now was.

This required Melissa to maintain a front which is only partially effective anyway. This requires even more mental processing when Melissa is already at her limits physically and psychologically.

Yet if Melissa makes the “change”,in this case disclosure, then all those she cares about will also experience significant cognitive dissonance.

As a result, those people will respond to this new reality by acting in ways Melissa never thought possible. Melissa will face the fears and anguish of her loved ones.

She will also experience malice, betrayal, exploitation and severe bullying at levels few can comprehend from others, including individuals close to her.

The result is that Melissa will now have to deal with all the cognitive dissonance of others and discovering things about the people around her that will set off yet more cognitive dissonance within her.

Add to that the fact that Melissa is 18 years old and her one and only sexual experience is forcible rape and it is very clear that Melissa's position is bleak and there is no experience or any real understanding she can draw upon.

All this is a variant on what the large majority of sexual assault victims will and do experience.

Cognitive dissonance has its own predictable pathology and those are the logical consequences that will almost certainly follow.

The considerations in place we now apply them to Melissa’s statement. Melissa states she withdrew from her family and friends. Seeking relief in self-imposed exile is an extremely typical response.

It changes the choice from keeping up a front or disclosure to avoidance or disclosure. Avoidance offers temporary relief. Therefore, Melissa’s statement makes complete sense and meets the veracity test.

Aftermath

It is important to note that everything I have described here is what we can reasonably conclude regarding what Melissa Schuman has had to face since she was assaulted. It does not contain detail as to specific examples of what Melissa has been through.

The relevant evidence is found in the context Melissa provides in her statement. Melissa did not want to tell anyone what happened to her. The reasons why a rape victim will not tell are always variations of the same small cluster of considerations.

Melissa tells us she withdrew from her friends and family. Again we see a text book response to rape. Desperate to find a way free of the chronic psychological torture of cognitive dissonance Melissa turned away from everything she held most dear.

Melissa was forced to abandon much of what would have been her source of support and strength in nearly any other situation. Sadly this is only the beginning of Melissa's troubles.

Nightmare

I claw the glass that mutes my screams, I do not sleep but still I dream, of the horror that has made my life its own, welcome to my nightmare zone

This article is the third in a series examining the rape that was inflicted on Melissa Schuman by Nick Carter. Part 1 and Part 2 were written for the purpose of determining whether the disclosure published by Melissa Schuman met certain tests.

Does the account provide details that credibly reflect Melissa’s individual circumstances?

Does the account provide telling details of how Melissa experienced the event?

Does the account fit within the presentation presented by rape victims generally?

I applied those considerations to two key areas. The primary event in Part 1 focused on the assault. Part 2 focused on the presentation of the secondary damage.

The result of that combined analysis clearly shows that Melissa Schuman was absolutely raped and that she suffered severe secondary damage as a result.

In Part 2 I talked about what Melissa was reasonably expected to be dealing with in the general sense. I talked about how the specter of cognitive dissonance would have impacted on Melissa's life also in the general sense.

This is a vital consideration in the process. People need to understand why it is that victims of rape and other sexual assault seem to be unable to "move on". Why would a person suddenly become so vocal about what happened decades ago in many cases?

Caught in the trap of cognitive dissonance internally while being subjected to the ongoing external liabilities inflicted on the victim by others, the victim simply cannot escape.

Trapped as they are in this state of constant conflict the victim is unable to move past the event that caused this living hell in the first place.

The result of this hell is ever increasing PTSD symptomatology that pushes the victim into the nightmare zone. Flashbacks, panic attacks, rage and depression. These toxic forces all end up converging on one point in the victims psychological construct. Identity.

The mistake that most people make is that they consider the primary event as an isolated consideration. The truth is that the assault on a rape victim does not end when the physical assault concludes.

The "assault" on Melissa Schuman began the moment when Nick Carter forced her into non consensual sexual activity and has continued to this day. The assault has simply mutated in form.

A personal and important part of Melissa's person is still back at that house stripped naked and terrified. The young woman that Melissa saw in the mirror looking back at her is very much alive and she does not sleep.

Having explored the various considerations in the general sense it is evident that it is now time to start looking at the details. The transition from the general to the specific necessarily starts with a focus on a statement made by Melissa in her disclosure.

There are some who argue for Nick Carter that claim this aspect of Melissa's statement amounts to a lie because it is on public record that Melissa did in fact disclose incrementally to certain individuals before she disclosed publicly.

It is fact that Melissa did not tell her roommate what happened in the car. I will provide details on that later in this article but it is fact Melissa did not disclose on that day in the car.

It is fact that Melissa did not want to tell anyone and that she did not want to admit what happened was real to herself.

It is fact that Melissa adopted a general strategy of avoidance when it came to dealing with people and that those people did notice.

It is correct where Melissa says she did not tell anyone having regard for the context in which she is making a "stream of consciousness" statement in the general sense.

What the comment was intended to convey was that she was desperate to pretend it did not happen and she had an intense desire to embrace avoidance as her only tenable coping mechanism at that time.

People in the general sense noticed and that would have resulted in what would have been experienced as painful intrusions in the form of questions and attempts to make her feel better in the absence of any understanding.

Faced with all this Melissa still did not tell those people and here she is trying to describe the terrible conflict she was experiencing. On one hand she was suffering an overwhelming need to avoid general disclosure.

On the other she was forced to carry the increasing burden of having to fend off others well meaning attentions. Melissa is facing two doors.

Instead of a case of the lady or the tiger, Melissa faces two tigers and she has to decide which of those tigers she prefers even as her life was unraveling all around her.

Melissa is referring to her friends and family at a collective level and she is providing her response to that general consideration.

There are degrees of disclosure. There is limited disclosure, personal disclosure where people in the victims personal life are made aware and public disclosure.

Limited disclosure is where a victim tells a person but in doing so makes no material alteration to the social dynamic of the victim in question. For example telling a therapist or trusted individuals sworn to secrecy is limited disclosure.

No one else is aware so there is no material change. All that is happened is that the secret is now carried by another who is bound not to act.

Essentially the limited disclosures Melissa made in the initial weeks and months that followed in no way spared her from the secondary damage dynamic I described in Part 2.

Telling certain individuals did not spare Melissa from having to listen to her girlfriends talk about marriage knowing she was irrevocably changed and was now forced to pretend that what was once her dream was not now a taunt in the voice of Nick Carter in her new nightmare.

Melissa was not spared the terrible shock, pain and grief as she walked in a world that no longer made sense to her.

The fact is the young woman who entered Nick Carter's house was dead and this new woman, this stranger looking back at her from every mirror she has gone on to face, was now in her place and that woman was screaming.

To understand the impact of the initial shock and damage inflicted on Melissa it is necessary to consider the damage to her sense of identity. For those who are fortunate enough to have not been in Melissa's situation this is not always easy to understand.

To those people I ask you to consider how you would or did feel if your partner cheated on you. Even if you are one of those who has never been cheated on you will know someone who has.

A common issue expressed by those who have been cheated on is the fact they have been living a lie. What they thought and understood and made them feel safe was in fact a cruel illusion.

In many ways that is what Melissa was experiencing but in the case of a rape the shock is much harder, much more encompassing and the exposure to ongoing abuse much more brutal.

Then we take the fact that Melissa was an 18 year old whose only sexual experience was being raped and it is evident that Melissa had no experience of any relevant kind to help her cope with the situation.

Melissa confided in her roommate the next day and as a result of that disclosure Melissa was taken to her roommate's mother. The mother sat Melissa down and Melissa was given a pillow to hold as she recounted what happened. Melissa was extremely upset.

An important point here is that Melissa went to her roommate's mother instead of a member of her own family. It is here we see the avoidance Melissa spoke of in her statement when she states she did not tell anyone.

It is evident that Melissa needs to reach out but at the same time she is still trying to keep the rape away from her family and what was once her normal life. Telling the roommate and the mother made no material difference to Melissa's general situation.

There was discussion about going to the Police. Melissa decided that she did not want to go to the Police and not only was that her personal decision to make I doubt it would have led to anything good if she had.

Melissa has made a limited disclosure. She does not know who she is anymore. Nick Carter ripped out her identity and destroyed her beliefs. He took Melissa's virtue, her confidence and sense of security and deprived of her love of life.

Melissa is now living a nightmare. What once offered comfort was now cold and hostile. Her sleep is fitful at best and nightmares stalk her rest. Food tastes like ash in her mouth and there is no laughter in her.

There is only a deep and crippling shame and the humiliation of having been naked and exposed in front a bullying coward and being unable to stop what was happening.

She will be replaying what happened over and over in her mind. If only she had done this or not done that. How could she not have seen it coming? Was it her fault?

What is he saying about it to his friends? Is her shame going to end up online? What if she is pregnant? What if he was carrying an STD?

The rape eats away at every part of her. Her focus on the event is such the rest of the world starts to fade around her.

It does not matter for there is only pain there anyway some part of her may have whispered, a seductive call to surrender to the drowning sensation inside her.

Cognitive dissonance lashes her as she struggles to maintain a facade over what was once an open life.

The psychological strain intensifies. Melissa's body is now reacting to the severe stress and anxiety levels. The stress hormone cortisol is at chronically elevated levels in her body.

Melissa discloses to her therapist and another friend. Again these are limited disclosures that make no material difference to Melissa's general situation.

While it is evident that Melissa sought escape in avoidance it is equally evident that Melissa is not inherently designed to live the life of subterfuge that is required for avoidance to be successful.

Disclosure is its own horror and as I stated in Part 2 disclosure does not end the storm of cognitive dissonance. It simply changes the dynamic.

Each time Melissa disclosed to an individual she was forced to relive the experience of watching the reality of her life hit the lives of others like a train.

For example I vividly recall my own experience in the disclosure dynamic. The person I disclosed to in confidence had made my situation all about her and she mouthed off to some of my relatives who had relationships with the abuser in my case.

I became aware of this some years later and realized that most of my relatives were aware of what happened but were all keeping silent about it.

The key word to that is most. The daughter of the offender knew something was going on but not what and she ambushed me when I least expected it.

I was heading for my vehicle with my mind turned inwards and I looked up to see her standing next to me having followed me out. She told me that she knew something was going on in the family and she wanted to know what it was.

As it happened I did know what was going on and God help me I let my normal facial expression of inscrutable indifference slip for just a single second and she saw it. She seized upon it and one skill I wholly lack is to be able to lie convincingly.

First she rejected my denials and then she ignored me when I told her that she did not want to know. Forced into a corner I had no way out so we went off and had that discussion. I recall her face clearly.

She was all excited to learn the family secret and when I told her the light faded and died in her eyes in the space of moments.

I saw in vivid detail how everything that she thought and believed in was torn from her by my truth and whatever made her the person that she was died in front of me.

I know for true that she has never recovered from that day. She had come looking for answers and found herself trapped in my nightmare with no escape. There never is.

Therefore it is not hard for me to understand what went down for Melissa when she finally went to her father Jerry Schuman in a state of collapse and disclosed what had happened to her.

I have been told how that day went down for the both of them but I will not share the details here. I see no value in publishing such deeply painful and personal experiences in detail for the consumption of others.

What I can say is that the experience for them both was intensely painful and harrowing. Melissa was forced to repeat this process over and over again and the horror of that cannot be understated.

At an evidential level it is clear that the dynamic Melissa and her people have presented to me is the wholly expected experience of rape victims generally.

Each person who Melissa disclosed to is another witness to the devastation that was inflicted on Melissa's life and those of the people who care about her.

So what does all this mean? We see that Melissa has presented very credibly in her statements as they pertain to the primary event and the immediate aftermath.

We then extend the applied considerations to how Melissa presented in the months and years afterwards and it is very clear that Melissa graphically presents at every stage as a bona fide victim of rape.

Putting the evidence to one side we are expected to believe that for wholly inexplicable reasons, Melissa made the conscious decision to turn her back on everything she believed and held dear in life and the successes that life had brought to her and threw it all away to claim the "vaunted status" of being Nick Carters rape victim.

Having done this we are expected to believe that having willingly chosen to live a life of ongoing abuse and humiliation over a life of success and popularity, Melissa has gone on to allow all those who care about her to experience their own lifetimes of horror to support a lie that brings her nothing but pain.

Now lets put the consistent and prolific evidence that we have been considering back in play and once again put what we are expected to believe by Camp Carter to the test.

Test that evidence against the frankly ludicrous and self serving premise we are expected to accept as truth.

Based on the evidence so far I put it to all reasonable people that Melissa Schuman was forcibly raped and sexually abused by Nick Carter.

I point to the stark evidence presented by Melissa's statements, the witness accounts of the people she has told over the years and the fact that Nick Carter is being accused by an increasing and substantial number of women.

I then ask you all to weigh that evidence against the ludicrous premise we would have to accept as truth if we were to believe Nick Carter. It is very clear that all the arrows point to Melissa telling the truth.

To believe otherwise we are forced to deny the powerful truth Melissa presents in favor of the feeble and insulting lie Nick Carter is desperate for others to believe.

Hunted

People often ask why survivors cannot move on after an event such as rape. It is because the sexual assault is the initiator of chronic and corrosive secondary damage that keeps the victim firmly anchored to the primary event or events. The truth is Melissa Schuman has been subjected to ongoing abuse as the direct result of the rape inflicted on her person by Nick Carter.

This abuse has come in many forms and has caused Melissa significant psychological distress. This distress has been experienced by many other Silence Breakers as well. The high profile nature of their work exposes all of them to the worst humanity has to offer.

Certain individuals have actively sought to harm Melissa Schuman's interests, infiltrate her life and deny Melissa her truth. Melissa has been hunted for a long time now.

The bully at the center of Melissa's experience is Nick Carter. First he used his size and aggression to rape Melissa Schuman. Having committed the act Carter was clearly concerned with how his victim in the matter was going to react.

This is standard for offenders motivated by lust. Lust for sex and or lust for power the dynamic is the same. Those who have allowed lust to dominate their thoughts dismiss matters such as consequence from their mind. The cold light of day inevitably follows.

Evidently determined to learn Melissa's state of mind and ensure Melissa would know her place in the scheme of things Nick Carter went on to harass Melissa Schuman who was doing all she could to avoid him.

This avoidance would have been a bright red flag to Nick Carter. It is also extremely likely that word would have gotten back to him once Melissa had disclosed to various people. The harassment was ongoing until a shift in tactics brought Carter and Melissa Schuman on to the stage together to perform a duet.

This leads us to a complex and contentious matter. The fact of this performed duet has been seized upon by Nick Carter supporters as "evidence" that Melissa Schuman is lying. The nature of this attack is routinely leveled against Silence Breakers on mass and normally inflicted on them by women claiming to be survivors.

We have all seen the way Weinstein would have his picture taken with his victims at functions where sexually assaulted women would be forced to look their best and smile with their attacker's arm around their shoulders in front of the world.

As I wrote that I could not help but imagine the insidious horror these women experienced standing in the view of millions and being able to do nothing to prevent their attacker from placing his hands on them again. At his whim. While they hand to stand there and smile about it.

According to those who troll and bully the Breakers, the correct response apparently is for the Breakers to turn their backs on everything they ever worked for and sit raging quietly at home.

This begs the question of just why Melissa was expected to turn her back on her career and everything she ever worked for? Apparently having already being deprived of her virtue, her bodily integrity and her love of life, the correct thing for Melissa to do was to take herself off and simply fade away.

I don't believe I have to explain in detail how only the diseased minds of sociopaths, enablers and rapists would consider that a valid and just outcome.

I have thought a great deal about this duet. Looking at the matter objectively it is evident that Melissa was subjected to a tactic straight out of Weinstein's handbook. Yet again the indicators in Melissa's statement are compelling.

It was over, at least I thought it was. I thought I’d never have to see or hear from him ever again. Until, I later signed with his manager, Kenneth Crear. Kenneth Crear was a very powerful manager who I thought could help me make my mark as a recording artist.

I quickly learned that Kenneth was thick as thieves with my abuser. Like family. I wondered what story or narrative my abuser might have told Kenneth of our once brief encounter. Did he know anything? I certainly wasn’t going to tell him.

So we can see that Kenneth Crear is closely linked to Nick Carter. The fear Melissa describes regarding what Nick Carter might have said to Kenneth Crear is a fear just about every survivor will be familiar with.

Kenneth set up a showcase for me for a major label. We recorded a few songs, one of them was a duet with my abuser. We never recorded together. He had pre-recorded his part and I went in and recorded mine. Again, what was I supposed to do? I could’t tell my manager that his best friend had raped me so I won’t record this song.

I tried to justify that maybe something good to come out of something very bad. Maybe this song might help me get signed as a solo artist and I could move on and put everything behind me. Kenneth asked my abuser if he would be willing to sing the duet with me live at my showcase and he agreed.

It is the last sentence that stands out. It is my view it is extremely probable that Melissa was misled when she was told that Nick Carter was asked if he would be willing to sing the duet with Melissa live.

I wasn’t surprised that he did. He knew this way I couldn’t avoid him anymore.

It is evident that Melissa was well aware that Nick Carter would "agree" to the duet as she was aware that in doing so Carter would achieve something that he clearly wanted. It is time to consider certain facts.

Nick Carter expended a great deal of effort trying to get close to Melissa for the range of reasons I wrote about earlier in this article.

Kenneth Crear is in a position of influence over Melissa's life.

Nick Carter has a great deal of influence with Kenneth Crear.

We have a serial sex offender who has already tried to harass Melissa into compliance and who now has the means to reach his victim, in this case a victim who has proven to be most adroit at avoiding him.

Are we expected to believe that Nick Carter did not actively seek to create a situation where he would be in a position of power over Melissa Schuman? Nick Carter had much to gain from the situation.

Nick Carter was in the position where he could create a Weinstein style alibi for himself and on the basis of the harassment he had already conducted it is evident he was highly motivated to get some form of control over Melissa Schuman.

I need to put on record at this point that I have seen no evidence that would allow me to allege that Kenneth Crear is an enabler or conspirator. There is no way of knowing exactly what was said to Kenneth Crear by Nick Carter.

As it happens what Nick Carter specifically said to Kenneth Crear is irrelevant. As any survivor well knows all the offender needs is the ear of the third party in question. The offender manipulates that third party into responding to the victim in the manner desired by the offender.

The third party either believes their trusted associate or gets confused by the back and forth and opts out by casting off the victim. Let's not forget here that all the Breakers were assaulted by men who held much greater influence in their industries than their victims.

From a business point of view Nick Carter is worth a lot more money than Melissa Schuman. To support Melissa in any way would cost Kenneth Crear an important friendship and make a powerful enemy in the industry.

Carter did not need a conspirator. He simply needed the means to force an outcome and there are all sorts of things Carter could have said to achieve that. It is my view, that on the balance of probabilities, Nick Carter played an active role in ensuring that a duet with him was featured on Melissa's showcase.

If her career took off then he would be able to claim he was part of that success and thus gain his alibi. He would be protected by the fact if Melissa went public she would lose everything she was working for.

This of course was wholly dependent on the way Melissa reacted to him when they were together. In the absence of achieving that alibi, Nick Carter was in a position to retaliate against Melissa.

It is very clear that the whole scenario favors Nick Carter no matter the outcome. The combination of all these considerations simply begs one to take a cynical view.

I believe that in one way or another, Nick Carter used his influence with Kenneth Crear to put himself in a position of power over Melissa Schuman.

I view this as an extension of the rape Carter inflicted on Melissa Schuman. Once again Melissa was in a position where she was in the grip of Nick Carters power.

I wasn’t surprised that he did. He knew this way I couldn’t avoid him anymore. The day of the showcase, he arrived. I waited quietly and anxiously backstage bracing myself for the confrontation. We stood next to each other in awkward silence. He was irritated with my lack of warm welcome and appreciation for the favor he was doing for me.

Here Melissa is clearly aware that Carter would be motivated for this encounter to happen. Melissa's take on the dynamic between them is highly relevant. Carter's troll pack like to claim that if Melissa was "truly raped" she would never have put the fact of that aside even if it was to advance her career.

In actual fact the evidence clearly shows that Melissa found herself cornered into a position where she had to make that choice and that she chose to refuse to put aside the fact of what happened to her and sign up to Nick Carter's lies.

We can see that initially Melissa hoped she could scrape by the experience and come out the other end free as a solo artist and free to pursue a Carter free existence. That is hardly unreasonable.

The evidence also shows that the Melissa was well aware of the risk she was taking by refusing to submit yet she stood by her truth and acted accordingly. Melissa was aware of Carter's relationship with Kenneth Crear and the position of power that placed him in.

Melissa knew what Nick Carter wanted and that was reassurance that he could be free of worrying about certain matters such as being held accountable for raping her.

That reassurance would be presented in the form of a warm greeting and I expect statements thanking Carter for elevating her to stardom.

Carter would have his Weinstein type alibi in place and he would be free of the burden of the tell tale heart, a.k.a Melissa Schuman, beating away in the background of his life.

Melissa was aware of what Nick Carter wanted and the likely cost of failing to comply with his wishes and Melissa made the conscious choice to deny Carter what he wanted in spite of being fully aware of the likely consequences of her decision.

So having regard for all the facts it is clear that when Melissa could run no more, she made the decision to refuse to deny the truth of what happened to her and adopt Nick Carter's lies over that truth.

The duet is not evidence that Melissa Schuman was prepared to put the assault to one side to further her career. The duet is the exact point in time that Melissa made the active choice to reject Nick Carters offer to exchange her truth for advancement in her career.

Melissa knew what was wanted from her and she refused to provide it. The context provided by Nick Carter when he said " “Let’s just get this over with already.” is very indicative. Nick Carter was not getting what he wanted but he had to perform regardless.

Now there was nothing in it for him his faux interest in performing the duet is exposed. Now he just wants to get it over with.

So having regard once again for the evidence it is clear that Melissa Schuman made the deliberate choice to hold on to her truth and in doing so sacrificed her career. Melissa's career is now another loss inflicted on her by the rapist Nick Carter.

To add insult to injury Carter trolls are claiming that this duet is evidence of Melissa trying to advance her career with Nick Carter and that amounts to evidence of Melissa not telling the truth. Bollocks. Once the proper context and applicable facts are applied then the opposite is proven to be true.

Context and facts are key in these matters. When Melissa wrote her public statement, there was no way she would have anticipated the someone like me would come along and start applying it to every aspect of her life.

To pass the tests Melissa's narrative has to gel with not only the events described during the assault but also how it impacted on her relationships and her employment and every other aspect of her life.

It is when these tests are applied properly the so called contradictions alleged by camp Carter are exposed as being no such thing and the narrative holds firm.

Based on the evidence as presented it is my conclusion that it is far more likely than not that the duet was arranged as the result of Nick Carter's influence.

I do not believe Kenneth Crear was a knowing participant in Nick Carter's agenda. His attitude and enthusiasm for Melissa's work right up until after the duet he praised her for indicate this.

Mr Crear's later avoidance of Melissa is in clear contrast with his previous behavior towards her. That action indicates to me that Kenneth Crear had the word put on him somehow by Nick Carter.

Suddenly finding himself in a position where he had to give Melissa the push and knowing there was no valid reason for doing so would have placed Kenneth Crear in an invidious position.

The ending of Melissa Schuman's career was the direct result of a power play by the serial sexual offender who raped her.

It is equally clear that Melissa Schuman made the conscious decision to place her truth over her career. The exact timing of that decision is the day of the duet where Melissa had the choice of smiling and validating her rapist or rejecting him at the cost of the last dream she had left.

This makes the claims sprayed around by Carter's troll pack as cruel as they are invalid. Melissa's career was taken from her by Nick Carter. That career loss is another casualty in Melissa's life thanks to the decision Nick Carter knowingly and willfully made to rape her.

It is also my view that part of Nick Carter's obsession with Melissa Schuman, as evidenced by his stalking and harassment, is not only fueled by his desire to avoid liability.

The evidence indicates that Nick Carter is so narcissistic and so caught up in his swollen hubris that a part of him is actually offended that Melissa Schuman and his other victims are anything less than grateful for the experiences he inflicted on them.

I will conclude this article with a link to a video that will clearly show how I draw that conclusion. Prepare to be disturbed.

The Dark Side of Nick Carter