Mac DeMarco’s former bassist/percussionist Jon Lent has been sentenced to jail for two years for sexual assault.
Jon Lent was arrested in December 2018 after an incident in Edmonton in 2018, according to Pitchfork. This year, on April 12th, he pleaded guilty to sexual assault.
Pitchfork was made aware of the incident on October 7th, when the woman he assaulted sent them an email. The woman, who requested to be identified as “S,” revealed that Jon Lent pleaded guilty to sexual assault earlier this year. She also says that he has been incarcerated since June 3rd. Pitchfork has been unable to confirm that yet.
Jon Lent, who played in Mac DeMarco's band for half a decade, was arrested for sexual assault in 2018 https://t.co/UYBnfq5tGc
— Pitchfork (@pitchfork) November 17, 2021
“I had really loved Mac DeMarco for a long time before I met Jon, and that was the reason why I ever met him, because I was following all the people from the band on Instagram,” S said.
“It has been almost six months since Jon was convicted and neither Jon nor Mac have said anything to address the situation,” S wrote. “I now know that I was wrong to believe that legal justice also means accountability.”
Pitchfork then reached out to Mac DeMarco and his management for comment. A representative responded. They said that DeMarco was not aware that Jon Lent had been arrested for sexual assault until April 2021.
Lent pleaded guilty to the 2018 crime in April of this year, with DeMarco "immediately" removing him from his band https://t.co/x8EXHzwIDk
— NME (@NME) November 18, 2021
Mac DeMarco’s statement about Jon Lent:
“Lent first told Mac about the sexual assault allegations in April 2021. Mac has not spoken to Lent since that conversation,” the email read. “Lent last played with Mac in January 2020. Upon learning of these allegations, Lent was immediately removed from the Mac DeMarco Band.”
Through his representative, DeMarco added: “I am no longer personally associated with Lent. I would like to respect the privacy of the survivor.”
Jon Lent sent a message to S on October 3rd, 2018, which read: “I’ve been thinking a lot about what I did and I realize that what I said was a misunderstanding was truly more a lack of consent.”
“I was fully in the wrong and I feel awful about it,” the message continues. “It’s really been eating me up inside. I feel my initial apology sounded insincere and I just want you to know how much I’ve regretted what I did. I acted cruelly and in a hurtful manner and have been afraid to acknowledge this and I realized that in ignoring what I did I’ve been making it worse.”
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