Credit: Getty
Riverdale actress Madelaine Petsch has spoken out in defence of her co-stars who were ‘falsely accused of sexual assault’ on social media.
The 25-year-old star took to her Instagram Story to share her thoughts, following Twitter posts from Cole Sprouse and Lili Reinhart about the allegations.
She wrote: ‘Today it was brought to my attention that four of my castmates were falsely accused of sexual assault and I’m really unsure as to why anyone would ever think that that’s an ok thing to do.
‘It’s so f**ing [inaudible] and hard to go through and, as someone who’s been sexually assaulted, I have no words.’
She continued: ‘This is the reason why I was scared to come forward and talk about my experiences [inaudible] because I was afraid that someone would tell me that I was lying or that it didn’t actually happen and for someone to go online and falsely accuse somebody of that only to come forward a couple of hours later and say that they were lying about four different people is such a serious thing to do, like honestly, how dare you?’
‘Because this is the reason why victims are afraid to come forward in the first place. This is the reason why people don’t believe sexual assault victims and yet you’re out here doing this online.’
The actress – who plays Cheryl Blossom – concluded: ‘I am so taken aback right now. My heart is really hurting for my friends and castmates who went through this today and I hope that everyone knows how serious it is to accuse somebody of that and I hope they understand the severity of what that does to people who have actually been through that.
‘It takes away the power from the victims who have gone through this, takes away the voices of people who want to come forward and talk about their experiences because it just validates the whole narrative that people lie about this stuff.’
It came after a newly created Twitter account with the handle @Victori66680029 accused Sprouse of ‘fondling’ her breasts at a party in 2013 in a series of tweets.
Fans of the Riverdale actor quickly came to his defence, calling the allegations fake and pointing out similarities between other accounts accusing his costars Vanessa Morgan, Lili Reinhart, and KJ Apa of sexual assault and harassment.
Cole Sprouse has since spoken out to deny all allegations of his involvement in alleged sexual abuse and sexual harassment.
Meanwhile, the account that tweeted out the accusations against Lili Reinhart, Vanessa Morgan and KJ Apa sent out another tweet which seemed to confirm the claims were false: ‘Do you see how easy it is to lie and you guys will believe it? Vanessa Morgan and Kj Apa didn’t do jack s**t. You will believe anything.’
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