Nicki Minaj has come out strongly today to deny any involvement of her dancers in the death of Irish student Nicola Furlong in Japan. Minaj said the men are not part of her back-up dancers.
The death of Irish exchange student Nicola Furlong in Tokyo, Japan has been one of the biggest stories in Ireland all week. Since Monday it has widely been reported that a back-up dancer for Nicki Minaj has remained in custody in Tokyo, in connection with the sexual assault and death of the female Irish DCU student.
The girl, 21-year-old Nicola Furlong, went to a Nicki Minaj concert last Wednesday night (May 23rd) in the Japanese capital with her friend Sarah Maher. Early the following morning, Nicola was found lying on the floor unconscious in her room at the Keio Plaza hotel. She was pronounced dead shortly thereafter. A hotel guest reported hearing loud noises coming from the girls’ room, and an employee found Nicola in a critical state.
According to reports, the girls met two men — musician Larry Perry, 19, and hip-hop dancer James Blackston, 23 — at the concert and ended up going back to the hotel with them. It is believed that the women were drugged and sexually assaulted while in a “comatose state.”
Sarah Maher survived but reported that she was sexually assaulted by both men. It was initially thought that the two girls had been spiked by the men. In a statement, Tokyo Police said “These two men allegedly took advantage of a female unable to resist due to the fact she was in a comatose state from a highly alcoholic beverage. On a taxi ride between Shibuya and Shinjuku, they took advantage of a woman [Sarah Maher] by touching her body.”
Perry and Blackston are being detained on suspicion of the sexual assault of Sarah Maher. Both are also being questioned about the death of Nicola Furlong.
In a strange twist today, Nicki Minaj has come out on Twitter today denying that any of her crew were involved in the situation. The rapper said “my dancers had nothing to do w/this tragedy. No one in my entourage was questioned or arrested. They all flew home from Japan”. This came after she expressed her sympathies to the girl’s family, but went on to say “We do NOT know the men in custody. Too much misleading information.”
