Rapper Freddie Gibbs charged with sexual assault in Austria

The US rapper Freddie Gibbs has been charged in Austria with sexually assaulting a woman while on tour in Vienna in 2015, an Austrian court spokesman said on Wednesday. Gibbs, 34, whose real name is Fredrick Tipton, has been remanded in custody in the Austrian capital following his extradition from France, where he was arrested in June. The rapper, who is from Gary, Indiana, and whose album Piñata was selected by several publications as among the best of 2014, denies any wrongdoing. “He is alleged to have administered knock-out drops to a woman and then have abused her sexually while she was in a defenceless state,” a spokesman for Vienna’s criminal court said, referring to drugs used to spike a person’s drink. The alleged incident occurred backstage in July 2015. Gibbs was charged on Tuesday with “sexual abuse of a defenceless or psychologically impaired person”, and if convicted faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, the spokesman said. A Vienna-based lawyer for Gibbs, Thomas Kralik, said his client had neither abused nor had sexual contact with the woman, and that he had yet to be formally notified of the charge. “He strenuously denies [the accusations],” Kralik said, adding that Gibbs also had nothing to do with the woman’s drink being spiked. A US lawyer for Gibbs, Theodore Simon, said: “While Freddie Gibbs was charged with an offence today, it remains only an allegation, and it does not in any way change the actual facts that Freddie Gibbs is 100% innocent.” In November 2014, Gibbs was shot at outside the record shop Rough Trade NYC, after an in-store appearance. The rapper and his associates were in a car leaving the venue when a man ran alongside and fired into the vehicle. Gibbs was unhurt, but two people were taken to hospital with injuries.Thanks for reading.

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