Nick Carter has filed a countersuit against two women who have accused him of rape.
Shannon Ruth filed a lawsuit against the Backstreet Boys singer in December in which she accused him of raping her on his tour bus after a concert in 2001 when she was only 17 years old.
Her legal action was filed just over four years after Melissa Schuman Henschel, a former member of the pop group Dream, accused Carter of sexually assaulting her in 2003 when she was 18 years old.
Carter filed a countersuit in Nevada on Thursday against Ruth, Schuman and her father Jerome Schuman, among other defendants.
In his countersuit, the singer claimed he's the victim of a "five-year conspiracy" orchestrated by the individuals "to harass, defame and extort" him, with Ruth allegedly being manipulated into filing her lawsuit by the Schumans.
"Ruth was a vulnerable and highly impressionable individual, craving attention and desperate to fit in," the lawsuit reads, reports Billboard. "Schuman and Jerome groomed and coached Ruth, coaxing her to inflate her initial claim of being abused at the hands of a third-party, to being physically abused at the specific hands of Carter, and, finally, to being sexually assaulted by Carter."
The 43-year-old's lawyers accused the co-defendants of defaming their client by calling him "a rapist" and an "abuser" on social media and on a podcast.
Once again denying the claims, Carter stated no autograph signing took place outside of his tour bus on the night in question in Ruth's allegation. He also insisted that he and Schuman had consensual sex.
Carter is seeking at least $2.35 million (£1.9 million) in damages to compensate for the job opportunities he's lost as a result of the claims.
Ruth's attorney Mike Boskovich responded to the countersuit in a statement to Billboard, which reads, "Why should Nick Carter be believed with his long history of abusing females. A jury will weigh the evidence and decide."
