Taylor Swift commissions gender studies expert for sexual assault trial against DJ David Mueller

Pop star claims radio host groped her at a meet-and-greet in 2013

Taylor Swift (Getty)

Taylor Swift has commissioned a university professor as an expert witness in her upcoming trial against a radio DJ she accused of sexual assaulting her.

David Mueller was accused of lifting Swift's skirt up and groping her at a meet-and-greet in Colorado in 2013.

In her disposition, the pop star described feeling "frantic, distressed and violated" after the alleged incident.

Mueller claimed he lost his job as a radio host at KYGO as a result of the "false" claims and filed a lawsuit against Swift, who responded with a counter-suit for sexual assault and battery.

As the trial approaches, Swift has commissioned Lorraine Bayard de Volo, who has a Ph.D in political science and teaches women and gender studies at University of Colorado Boulder.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, de Volo has written an opinion that Mueller's behaviour is consistent with emotional and psychological traits associated with men who sexually harass and assault women.

In her report, she says that the radio host's "masculine status" had been compromised because he was treated like a fan at the meet-and-greet rather than a VIP.

She writes: "This perfect storm of threats to Mr Mueller's perceived status is consistent with the well-settled, academically accepted, perceived threats to status that motivate a man to commit sexual harassment or assault."

Mueller has filed a motion asking the judge to preclude de Volo's testimony, arguing that she has never met or spoken to him yet has portrayed him as someone "likely to commit" sexual assault.

"If her report addressed such extreme generalisations about race, as opposed to gender, Defendants would have been embarrassed to admit it," attorney Gabriel McFarland wrote in the motion.

The trial is currently scheduled to begin on 7 August.