Sigur Rós drummer Orri Páll Dýrason quits band after facing sexual assault allegation

"I cannot have these serious allegations influence the band".

Sigur Rós drummer Orri Páll Dýrason has announced that he’s leaving the acclaimed Icelandic band after facing sexual allegations online.

Posting on his official Facebook page, Dýrason wrote: “I cannot have these serious allegations influence the band and the important and beautiful work that has been done there for the last years.”

The remaining band members later posted: “In the wake of the extremely serious and personal allegations made against him in recent days we have today accepted the resignation of our bandmate Orri Páll Dyrason to allow him to deal with this privately. Jónsi & Georg.”

His departure comes after artist Megan Boyd claimed that she was assaulted by Dýrason in Los Angeles in 2013.

Boyd claims that she fell asleep in the same bed as Dýrason and woke briefly on two different occasions to discover that he was assault her. She says that a mixture of tiredness and intoxication prevented her from becoming fully aware of the situation.

“I harbored this ache now for almost 6 years… for many reasons”, Boyd wrote on Instagram.

“I felt no one would believe me, I felt I had been irresponsible for trusting him just because he was in a band I loved and I respected him as an artist. I was drunk, and I had met him at a club.”

She also claims to have screenshots of emails sent to her by Dýrason after she first went public with her allegations.

Confirming his departure, Dyrason said: “In light of the scale of this matter, I have decided to leave Sigur Rós. That is a difficult decision for me, but I cannot have these serious allegations influence the band and the important and beautiful work that has been done there for the last years. A job that is so dear to me.

“I will do anything in my power to get myself out of this nightmare, but out of respect for those actually suffering from sexual violence, I will not take that fight public.”