Fairfax Accuser Meredith Watson: 'I Feel Guilty' For Not Speaking Out Before He Assaulted Vanessa...

Fairfax Accuser Meredith Watson Tears Up: ‘I Feel Guilty’ For Not Speaking Out Before He Assaulted Vanessa Tyson

by Ken Meyer | Apr 2nd, 2019, 8:45 am

In the second half of her interview with CBS, Meredith Watson burst into tears as she spoke about Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax and the broader implications of his alleged sexual assault against her.

After Watson described how Fairfax supposedly raped her when they were in college together in 2000, she said she has nothing to gain by going public, even as Gayle King brought up several scrutinized elements of her past. She countered those arguments by saying “I don’t have to defend myself because nothing in my life that happened after that night is relevant to what happened that night.”

The conversation eventually moved on with King asking Watson how she felt when Vanessa Tyson became the first woman to come forward with the claim that Fairfax sexually assaulted her. Since Tyson claims her assault happened in 2004, Watson said “I feel guilty” because Tyson’s ordeal might not have happened if she went public about Fairfax earlier.

“It happened to her after it happened to me,” Watson said through tears. “Had I had the strength or the courage to say something in 2000, maybe it never would have happened to her. and I know the pain that she’s had to live with since it happened, and nobody should have to go through this, and I feel awful.”

video
https://www.mediaite.com/tv/fairfax-accuser-meredith-watson-tears-up-i-feel-guilty-for-not-speaking-out-before-he-assaulted-vanessa-tyson/

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Second Fairfax Accuser Meredith Watson Speaks Out on Alleged Rape: ‘A Huge Betrayal, He Was my Friend’

by Ken Meyer | Apr 2nd, 2019, 8:17 am

CBS’ Gayle King followed up her interview with Vanessa Tyson on Tuesday by speaking to Meredith Watson, the second woman who accused Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax of sexual assault.

In the interview, Watson started by recalling how she knew Fairfax during their college years and would frequently hang out with one another. She remembered that “I was not worried at all” when they were spending time together as Fairfax neared graduation in 2000, but then she described Fairfax locking the door to their room, turning off the lights and physically stopping her from leaving.

“He did things that you shouldn’t do to someone without their permission,” Watson said before emphatically saying “he forcibly sexually assaulted and raped me.”

Fairfax has claimed that his night with Watson was consensual, but she countered “if you have to hold someone down, it’s not consensual.” Watson also told King she told several close friends about what Fairfax allegedly did to her, and that she was “so humiliated” that she didn’t want to talk about it anymore after that.

“It was a huge betrayal,” Watson said through tears. “He was my friend. I don’t understand how you do that to somebody that you have been a friend to and has confided in you about things. I don’t understand how you do that.”

Watson would clarify that she confided in Fairfax that she was raped once before, which was why “I would never have expected anything like this from him.” She described how she avoided Fairfax after their encounter, but when she eventually confronted him and asked why he did it, she claimed he said “I knew because of what happened to you last year, if I got you in the right situation, you would be too afraid of say or do anything about it.”

video via CBS
https://www.mediaite.com/tv/second-fairfax-accuser-meredith-watson-speaks-out-on-alleged-rape-a-huge-betrayal-he-was-my-friend/