This week, Jezebel published the contents of an email sent to them from a writer and stylist working in New York City named Anna. Anna (whose last name was redacted) writes that she was "photographed and sexually assaulted by the delightful Terry Richardson following the July 2008 launch party of the Nolita restaurant Delicatessen" when she was 23 years old.
The letter goes on say that Richardson was "apparently quite taken with my energy in front of the camera," and that he and his assistant Leslie Lessin invited her to leave the event for "an impromptu photo shoot" at his studio. After some portrait shots taken by Lessin, Anna says that Richardson asked her to go topless, and while she was posing on the floor things escalated quickly. "I felt a dick pressing into the side of my face. Terry Richardson's semi-hard penis was plunged into the outside of my cheek, and he was jabbing it into my face." Anna writes that she left the shoot and refused an offer to return to Richardson's birthday party several days later.
Towards the end of the email, Anna reveals that the upcoming "name-clearing cover story by New York Magazine" is what made her finally tell her story. "I would have come out with the story when the incident happened, but - as pathetic as this sounds - didn't think anyone would give a shit about a non-model getting a dick, albeit a famous fashion photographer's dick, shoved in her face without any proof whatsoever...hearing that New York magazine is going to publish a story absolving the sleazebag of a load of sick, sordid stuff he most definitely, obviously did to multiple women is enough to finally incite me. The guy shouldn't just be locked out from the fashion photography world, he should be in jail."
To read the full email, head over to Jezebel, then come back and share your thoughts below.
RELATED: New York Magazine May Have Plans for a Name-Clearing Cover Story on Terry Richardson
[via Styleite]
