Whenever Brittany Cancian hears the name of the well-known musician who tried to force her into an indecent act, she shudders. The memory of the man drunkenly grabbing her head and forcing it towards his naked groin still haunts the 17-year-old, even a year after it happened.
Even the recent court case, when the entertainer admitted inducing an indecent act, hasn’t brought the pretty teenager any closure – especially after the judge’s decision to permanently suppress the offender’s name. Since the musician’s discharge without conviction, Brittany has been subjected to the further ordeal of cruel and untrue stories about her reputation and what happened that night.
In her first and only interview, Brittany, from Lower Hutt, told New Zealand Woman’s Weekly why she couldn’t stay silent any longer. “There have been some twisted stories spread by other people. I want the truth to be told,” she says.
The night of the incident, Brittany (then 16) was out with a group of friends from her school, Hutt Valley High. They were hanging out at a central Wellington park when some of them noticed the musician walking past at around 3.30am.
The friends hadn’t been to his concert that night and Brittany wasn’t even a fan of the entertainer, but two of her girlfriends ran over to speak to him. When Brittany noticed her friends being led down an alleyway, she decided to check on them. “I’ve never liked his music, which is one reason I didn’t go with them, but then I started wondering what was going on so I followed them. I saw him with his boxers down – he was buck naked from the waist down. My friends were standing to one side and looking at him like, ‘Is he being serious?’
“They had asked him, ‘Can we kiss you?’ – meaning on the cheek – but then he told them to kiss his genitals. “Suddenly I was grabbed by the hair and he was pushing my head towards his crotch. It touched my nose. It was disgusting. All I could think was, ‘What the hell is going on?’ I was taken by surprise at someone doing that randomly, and then I just started running.”
Brittany then went to a group of friends where her boyfriend was, and told him what had happened. “I knew he would protect me. He was angry and tried to find the man again, but we couldn’t.”
For the next few hours, Brittany couldn’t stop thinking about what had happened – and she became increasingly upset. “I thought that it just wasn’t right. In the morning, I told my two friends who had stayed over that I wanted to ring the police. They wondered why I wanted to do it. They didn’t think it was that serious.”
But for Brittany, the incident filled her with revulsion and she wanted justice. “I felt like I’d been treated like a dog. I felt like crap,” she says vehemently. Brittany told her mother, Racheal (39), about the assault and she supported her daughter’s courageous decision to go to the police. “I said ‘Good. You can’t let him do that to you,'” tells Racheal.
Brittany’s boyfriend also supported her decision to lay a complaint and drove her to the police station, where she made a statement. The police went to where the incident had taken place and discovered a nearby shop had caught it all on camera. “You see me running out and wiping my face, just gutted,” Brittany explains. “I was so relieved when I found out about the film. I’d been worried they wouldn’t believe me because he was famous.
“Afterwards, the police rang me and said that the musician was offering $200 to go towards a charity. “They suggested I should ‘have some compassion’. My dad went berserk about that,” she recalls.
Brittany was determined to go ahead with the court action and in october, the man admitted the charge, whereupon he was discharged without conviction and had his name permanently suppressed. He also agreed to pay $5000 reparation to Brittany, who is yet to receive the money.
The judge described the offending as “medium to low-level” and said it had to be balanced against the consequences the man could face, such as selling fewer records and affecting his ability to travel overseas for performances.
It has been reported that the musician was intoxicated at the time, but Brittany says that’s no excuse. “He said he didn’t remember any of it but I believe you still know what you’re doing when you’re drunk,” Brittany says.
“I felt so disheartened about what he did. If it had been anyone else it would be disgusting, but it’s worse because he’s famous and meant to be a role model.” She is particularly hurt that she’s been painted as a groupie who had been following the musician around.
“I heard a DJ on the radio suggest that I was a groupie. I wanted to call the station to tell them that’s not what happened, that they couldn’t say that and we hadn’t even gone to his concert.” Brittany’s mum Racheal is also upset that questions have been raised about her teenage daughter being allowed out so late at night.
“I trust Brittany and there was a whole bunch of them – it would be different if she was by herself,” she says firmly. “Brittany stayed in contact with me wherever she went. A lot of people are saying, ‘Why was she out at that time?’ I could have said no to Brittany, but I believe you have to let kids learn – you can’t hold them back.
“And anyway, that has nothing to do with it. Brittany wasn’t breaking the law – he was,” says Racheal, who also has an 18-year-old daughter, Candace, and a 10-month-old grandson, Ricoh. If Brittany ever sees the entertainer again, she knows what she will do.
“I would definitely say something. I’d like to tell him my thoughts and that he was disrespectful to me.” She vows she would stilll report the incident to police if it happened again, despite her public ordeal. “Yes, I would. Now that all this has happened, I’ve realised I want to help women and children who’ve been put in my position. It doesn’t matter who you are, you shouldn’t behave like that,” she says.
“I still think about it every day. I’m angry that he got name suppression. I think if he was a normal person, it would be different. I want people to know his name and I feel like the court has taken his side.” Racheal explains that Brittany is not out to destroy the entertainer – she just wants him to know that his actions were harmful. “I think he should pay for her to get a good counsellor so she can get it all out and get her life back on track.”
The school-leaver, who is planning to study interior design, is trying not to let the frightening experience affect her other relationships. “I’m quite a trusting person until someone does something wrong,” Brittany says, “and I refuse to let what he did affect my relationships with my boyfriend or other people. “I would never buy his records and every time I hear his music or see him on TV, I switch it off.”
