Alex O'Connor of Rex Orange County fame accused of sexual assault

Content warning: This article contains references to sexual assault.

Alexander O’Connor, better known as Rex Orange County, was accused of sexual assault in the U.K. The woman, who remains anonymous, claims she was assaulted by O’Connor six times.

The news broke that the singer/songwriter had appeared at Southwark Crown Court in London on Monday and pleaded not guilty on all six counts. The victim said she was assaulted twice on June 1, 2021, and four times the following day, June 2, 2021. These alleged incidents occurred once in a taxi and three times at his house in West London. O’Connor was released on unconditional bail.

O'Connor's publicist said he is “shocked by the allegations, which he denies and looks forward to clearing his name in court.”

Back in July, O’Connor canceled his upcoming tour for “unforeseen personal circumstances” in a statement posted on his Instagram. His U.K. and Ireland tour dates still were able to go on as planned, and his last show was on August 13 of this year in London.

A lot of fans quickly expressed their rage and disappointment in the artist on social media as soon as the news broke. On O’Connor’s latest post on Instagram, fans have left comments on the photo from August 14. One said, “u were supposed to be a source of positivity and hope for love but ur just vile too….. so symbolic.”

In between the overflow of reminiscent video montages of his performances and pictures from meet and greets, fans also expressed their disappointment on TikTok, showing themselves gathering any sort of memorabilia they owned from laptop stickers to vinyl records and cardboard cutouts and throwing them in the garbage.  

O’Connor released his third studio album “Who Cares?” in March of this year. Since his rise to fame from songs “Loving Is Easy” and “Bestfriend,” he was featured twice on Tyler, the Creator’s album “Flower Boy” the same year and has released one mixtape and two other studio albums.

It's so important that celebrities and public figures of any kind are held accountable for unspeakable actions like these — not just by the public but by their fans as well. O'Connor's fans thinking that they know him well because they have followed him for a long time does not mean that they know him personally.

It is unknown what the relationship between O’Connor and the victim was, but regardless, there was most likely a power imbalance between them due to O'Connor's fame. There's a possibility O’Connor was able to influence or bribe the victim due to his status since it's nearly impossible not to know who he is and what he does.

O’Connor is a wealthy, well-known artist who had a very large audience. If the victim was also a well-known public figure, the chances of her speaking out on her own platform would be much greater. This seems to not be the case, as her identity is not public information.

While many have come out in support of the victim, some fans of O'Connor insisted that these accusations were untrue, citing that O'Connor was reportedly in the U.S. on tour during the dates of the alleged assault. This has been proven to be untrue as the tour dates in question were in 2022 rather than 2021. As of now, there is no known alibi for O'Connor.

O’Connor’s next trial date is set for January 3, 2023.