YouTuber Pyrcocynical has hit back at allegations that he groomed a 15-year-old in a statement posted on his official subreddit.
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Pyrocynical is a 23-year-old UK based commentary YouTuber with 4 million followers, who began posting on the platform back in 2014. Pyro is associated with other commentary creators including Dolan Dark, WillNE, and ImAllexx.
On October 29, the creator was accused of grooming a 15-year-old fan in a Twitter thread by a Twitter user called Ivory Rasmus. The thread claimed: “Pyrocynical groomed me and I have screenshots to prove it. I’ve been sitting thinking about this shit non-stop, being angry, confused, and sad that I’ve had to accept this since I was 15, but I never said anything cause I felt powerless.”
https://twitter.com/IIovebird/status/1321798971275251712?s=20
Ivory claimed that Pyro sent explicit content and asked them to compile it together, the user said they did it because they were “just happy to be talking to him,” and shared screenshots from a chat on Discord.
The YouTuber has now responded to the accusations on his subreddit, publishing a statement that read: “As some of you may have seen, it has been claimed – back in 2016, when I was 19 years old – that I ‘groomed’ an individual who was 15 years old at the time. I want to set the record straight with you all and share the truth. This accusation is 100% false and incredibly irresponsible.
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“I am not denying that in the past, I took part in conversations with others that many of you will understandably consider to be weird and distasteful (probably an understatement). It was careless of me not to consider who was behind the role-play / art sharing, and I take full accountability.”
Pyrocynical went on to say that the conversations were fully consensual and that the accuser never disclosed his age until a year later. He also pointed to evidence of similar conversations between Ivory and others and an interview in which they confirmed Pyrocynical never sent any IRL content.
Ivory has since reacted to Pyrocynical’s statement, tweeting: “This situation is a perfect representation of why victims don’t come out about their experiences,” and that, “people telling me I was egging it on when the entire point is that no matter how I was responding [Pyrocynical] was talking to a child.”
https://twitter.com/IIovebird/status/1326708042344304640?s=20
Pyrocynical’s statement has amassed more than 18,000 upvotes on Reddit since it was posted on Wednesday, November 11.