Following Christian rock singer Michael Tait appearing to acknowledge allegations that he’d spent decades preying on vulnerable young men, new allegations have arisen that accuse the singer of drugging a young woman and then watching her being sexually assaulted.
Warning: This report contains details of allegations of sexual assault.
Michael Tait was the lead singer of Christian rock band Newsboys for over two decades until he left the band earlier this year.
Previously Tait was a member of the hugely popular DC Talk, who released five albums between 1988 and 2001, he then went on to front his own band Tait, before joining Newsboys.
Recently the singer published a letter to his Instagram account saying that for decades he’s lived a double life confirming that reports of drug use and sexual activity are “sadly, largely true”.
Now a woman has come forward with an additional claim saying that she worked with the band and was alleged that she was raped while Tait watched on.
She believes Tait drugged her after a late night gathering during the band’s pre-Christmas tour in 2014. The woman says she’s blacked out, and then was assaulted by the band’s lighting technician Matthew Brewer. She alleges that Tait was in the room while she was being sexually assaulted, and it was later covered up by the band’s then manager.
Brewer has denied the accusation saying the interaction was between consenting adults, while Steve Campbell, the band’s manager at the time has also vehemently denied any cover up. Tait has not responded to media requests for comment.
Earlier this year Christian media outlet The Roys Report published allegations that Tait had ongoing alcohol and substance abuse issues and a history of predatory sexual behaviour against young men.
Their investigation included three young men who had been on tour with the band, all three were 22-year-old at the time of alleged assaults. Two men said that had passed out after drinking with Tait and later woken to find him massaging their genitals. A third said Tait massaged his back while they were skinny dipping and later invited his to share his king-size bed, where the singer allegedly non-consensually massaged his anal region.
In his Instagram post Tait said :For some two decades I used and abused cocaine, consumed far too much alcohol, and, at times, touched men in an unwanted sensual way.”
Tait said he disagreed with some of the details of the accusations made against him but did not “dispute the substance of them.”
An investigation by The Guardian found that knowledge of Tait’s behaviour was an ‘open secret’ within the Christian music world.
They have also published more allegations against Tait, including one claim that he supplied cocaine and alcohol to an underage teenager who he later allegedly drugged and abused. They also included reports from two other men who alleged they had been molested by the singer. Tait has not responded to the most recent accusations.
The remaining members of Newsboys Jeff Frankenstein, Jody Davis, Duncan Phillips and Adam Agee, released a statement expressing “horror, heartbreak, and anger,” and saying they felt “deceived” by Tait, who they said admitted in January to “living a double life.”
“When he left the band in January, Michael confessed to us and our management that he ‘had been living a double-life,'” the band wrote. “But we never imagined that it could be this bad.”
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