Elephant Man Arrested on Rape Charge

Jamaican Dancehall Musician Elephant Man Charged with Rape

Jamaican musician Elephant Man (born O'Neil Byan) was arrested on January 30 and charged with rape and grievous sexual assault.

Elephant Man's arrest follows accusations from a 31-year-old woman that the dancehall musician raped her at his St. Andrew home.

Elephant Man was released on $400,000 bail. According to Go-Jamaica, Elephant Man also faces an unrelated charge of stealing electricity.

Elephant Man's music has featured violently homophobic content, which resulted in UK-based gay- and civil rights groups calling for his arrest under hate crime statutes; he was unable to perform in Britain until he agreed to stay away from lyrics that promoted homophobic violence. Elephant Man was also dropped from Toronto's Caribana Festival in 2009 for the same reason.