Terry Richardson has broken his silence about the ongoing allegations of sexual harassment and casting couch procedures against him, saying they're “false, hate-filled and libelous tales” in what he feels has been "nothing more than an emotionally-charged witch hunt.

“I chose to primarily ignore a cycle of Internet gossip and false accusations against me," Richardson said in a letter published in Friday's NY Post. "I felt that to dignify them with a response was a betrayal of my work and my character.”

Richardson -- who's been publicly panned by models he's worked with, such as Jamie Peck, Rie Rasmussen and Charlotte Wheeler, in recent years -- said the most recent wave of allegations "seemed especially vicious and distorted.

“People have become comfortable concocting hate-filled and libelous tales," the sometimes-salacious shutterbug wrote. "In writing this, I make a humble attempt at correcting these rumors."