“Police have been told the [alleged] incident occurred at a licensed premises in Melbourne’s [central business district],” Victoria Police said in a statement obtained by EW.
Australian authorities have opened an investigation into pop star Katy Perry after actress Ruby Rose alleged on Sunday that the singer sexually assaulted her 16 years ago in 2010 — an allegation that Perry’s team strongly denied as “dangerous, reckless lies.”
In a statement obtained Wednesday by Entertainment Weekly, a representative for the Victoria Police confirmed that “Melbourne Sexual Offences and Child Abuse Investigation Team (SOCIT) detectives are investigating a historical [alleged] sexual assault that occurred in Melbourne in 2010.”
The statement added that “police have been told the [alleged] incident occurred at a licensed premises in Melbourne’s [central business district],” and that the “the investigation remains ongoing” as of Wednesday. “It would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage.”
EW has reached out to representatives for Perry for a response.
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Over the weekend, Rose, who appeared in Orange Is the New Black and Batwoman, responded to a Threads post by Complex Music Threads that mentioned Perry. The actress wrote, “Katy Perry sexual assaulted me at spice market nightclub in Melbourne. Who gives a s— what she thinks.”
Rose then detailed the alleged assault in various comments on the site. After one user referenced Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl” song — writing, “she kissed a girl and you didn’t like it” — Rose alleged: “She didn’t kiss me. She saw me ‘resting’ on my best friends lap to avoid her and bent down, pulled her underwear to the side and rubbed her disgusting vagina on my face until my eyes snapped open and I projectile vomitted [sic] on her.”
In response to the initial allegation, a representative for Perry told EW on Monday, “The allegations being circulated on social media by Ruby Rose about Katy Perry are not only categorically false, they are dangerous, reckless lies.”
The representative continued, alleging that “Ms. Rose has a well-documented history of making serious public allegations on social media against various individuals, claims that have repeatedly been denied by those named.”
While Perry hasn’t directly address Rose’s allegation herself, she shared an image of her 2013 song “By the Grace of God” to her Instagram Story on Tuesday, with the caption, “i love you.”
Perry has been accused of sexual misconduct in the past, particularly by her “Teenage Dream” music video star Josh Kloss, who alleged that Perry pulled his pants down to expose his penis in front of other people.
“I think we live in a world where anyone can say anything,” Perry told The Guardian in 2020, after news of Kloss’ allegation broke. “I don’t want to say ‘guilty until proven innocent’ but there’s no checks and balances: a headline just flies, right? And there’s no investigation of what it is.”
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She added, “I don’t want to add to the noise. I want to add to the truth, basically.” The publication noted that Perry inhaled after being asked if past allegations were true or not, and said: “I don’t comment on all the things that are said about me because if I chase that dragon, it would be about true and false-ing my whole life. It’s distracting from the real movement.”
Per the Los Angeles Times, costume designer and Perry associate Johnny Wujek wrote on social media at the time of Kloss’ allegation that he was “not about to let you make accusations against my friend like this.” He later added, “Katy would never do something like that. We all know about your on going obsession with her since the day of filming that video. You were writing her music. And planning an imaginary future with her. It’s not ok to do this to people who have done nothing but uplift and inspire others.”
Rose previously alleged that her exit from the lead role of The CW’s Batwoman series in May 2020 came after several allegations about what she said were unsafe working conditions and an alleged incident involving former WBTV President Peter Roth, whom Rose alleged hired a private investigator to follow her. A source told EW at the time that the claims were “slanderous and unfounded accusations.”
