Backstreet Boy Nick Carter has been spotted in public for the first time since being accused of raping a disabled woman on the band’s tour bus in 2001.

The pop star met fans outside the Empire State Building in New York City on Thursday, 8 December after the band’s festive TV special was pulled amidst the new lawsuit.

Carter, 42, was spotted outside the American landmark with bandmates Aj Mclean, Brian Littrell, Howie Dorough and Kevin Richardson.

The band’s holiday show was planned to air on ABC on 14 December to coincide with their 10th album, A Very Backstreet Christmas.

Carter has been accused of raping a 17-year-old girl with cerebral palsy and autism when the band went on tour in 2001.

The alleged victim, Shannon ‘Shay’ Ruth, broke down during a press conference on Thursday announcing the lawsuit against the singer.

Ruth, now 39, claims she was invited on the band’s tour bus when she was 17 after their gig in Tacoma, Washington in February 2001.

The woman claims Carter pulled down his trousers and exposed himself to her in a bathroom before he allegedly forced an oral sex act and raped her.

Ruth detailed the 'pain, confusion, frustration, shame and self-harm' caused by the alleged rape and Carter ‘threatened and tried to silence her’ afterwards.

She claims after being invited on the tour bus Carter offered her a drink, she asked for apple juice but the star gave her a ‘red coloured’ drink which he called ‘VIP juice’.

He then allegedly took Ruth to the bathroom where he exposed himself and instructed Ruth to perform oral sex on him. She was in tears, but Carter ‘kept instructing her’.

The woman went on to state Carter then put her on a bed in the tour bus and allegedly raped her.

After the alleged rape Ruth claims Carter told her if she went public people would call her a ‘retarded little bitch that no one would believe’.

Her attorney, Mark J. Boskovich said there were three more women involved - referred to as just Jane Doe in the joint lawsuit as well as Ruth.

Ruth said: ‘The last 21 years have been filled with pain, confusion, frustration, shame and self-harm that are a direct result of Nick Carter raping me.

'Even though I’m autistic and live with cerebral palsy, I believe that nothing has affected me more or had a more lasting impact on my life than what Nick Carter did and said to me.

'After he raped me, I remember him calling me a retarded little bitch and grabbing me and leaving bruises on my arm.’

She added: 'Carter tried to scare me into silence … he was nasty and threatening.'

'He told people he would turn people against me and because he was Nick Carter, he had the power to wreck my life.'

Ruth went to claim she contracted Human papillomavirus infection from the alleged assault and the pop star took her virginity against her will.

A source close to Cater told TMZ: 'This accusation is categorically false, Nick is focusing on his family and mourning the death of his brother.'

Carter's attorney Michael Holtz has called the allegations 'entirely untrue’, he told DailyMail.com 'for several years Ms. Ruth has been manipulated into making false allegations about Nick.'

In 2017 singer Melissa Schuman accused Nick Carter raped her in 2003, the LA County District Attorney’s said it would not press charges.

Nick Carter’s brother Aaron died on November 5, the official cause of death has not been released.