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YouTuber Adam Blampied admits to using fame to harass women

By RIE TAKUMI, GMA News

A YouTube video blogger (vlogger) from the UK  known for his videos on professional wrestling issued an apology this week after several women came forward with screenshots and accounts of him emotionally manipulating them for nude pictures.

Former WhatCulture host and writer Adam Blampied, whose claim to fame includes video critiques and speculations on WWE programming, admitted on Twitter that he "falsely claimed" to be in an open relationship with his girlfriend to convince women to send him "images of themselves."

 


 

"I didn't make threats or offer perks in exchange, but I exploited my growing public position and often my friendships with these women, all to fuel my ego," he stated.

"By manipulating them in this manner and acting completely inconsiderately of their feelings as I asked for these pictures, I have violated their trust and my girlfriend's trust," Blampied continued.

Blampied's former partner Natasha Hodgson confirmed a week before Blampied released his statement that they were not in an open relationship and that she was not aware of his actions or claims upon her person.

 

 

"For the avoidance of doubt, I am not in an open relationship with @AdamTheBlampied. So, sorry if he's told you otherwise. For all of us," she wrote.

Blampied issued the apology in response to a post made by a Twitter user detailing an incident in 2016. 

"About a year ago, a drunk Adam Blampied slid into my DMs and asked me to send him nudes. I was also drunk at the time, which I made clear to him. I asked if he had a girlfriend, and he said yes," the user shared. 

"I asked if his girlfriend was okay with this kind of thing, and he said she didn't know. So I told him that I didn't feel comfortable sending him nudes for that reason," she continued.

She added that the conversation continued and that Blampied steered it back to sexual matters and her breasts, which he described as "probably big AND firm" after she told him that she was 19.

 

 

The 30-year-old host continued to persuade the teenager, who admitted to being "19, drunk, sexually inexperienced" and said that she "had moral objections to sending him nudes" even though she relented.

"I don't feel good about my actions. I wish I had the self-control not to do it, but I'd never really had that kind of attention from a man before, especially not someone like Blampied. He was charming, he was the face of a YouTube channel, and I'd been a fan of him for a while," she said.

Blampied apologized to her a day later, though he would continue to send her pictures on Snapchat and ignore her responses, leading her to ask the host to stop contacting her.

"If I hadn't, I'm sure it would've turned into a cycle, making me rely on him for validation, as this is exactly what he did to other women," she said.

She learned about other women who allegedly suffered from the same emotional manipulation from Blampied, including a woman struggling with her mental health and a close friend.

"He convinced one female fan who knew had feelings for him that if he was single, he would have been dating her. He emotionally manipulated her into continuously sending him nudes, even when she was struggling with her mental health," she recounted.

"He also guilt tripped a close friend of mine for not sending him nudes on his birthday. He made threatening comments towards her and then claimed they were jokes when she was upset by them. He berated her for flirting with other people, as if that were any of his business."

She claimed a total of at least seven women were allegedly manipulated by Blampied.

The victims she knew personally were supposedly "in vulnerable positions when he did it, suffering from poor mental health and dealing with difficult personal circumstances."

"That's what scares me most. How many people has he emotionally abused using his platform as a successful YouTuber? He paints himself as someone who respects women, but he manipulates and abuses them in his personal life."

Another Twitter user came forward to share her own experience of being harassed by Blampied.

"HE ISN’T A GOOD PERSON. HE ISN’T BRAVE. Brave is the word used to define those who spoke up about what they’ve experienced. He only spoke up because he was SO close to being exposed publicly, because girls had decided to speak up and tell people about his bull----," she wrote.

Cultaholic, Blampied's new Youtube project with other former members of WhatCulture, also released their own statement announcing the postponement of their channel launch to allow Blampied to take a short leave of absence.

"While everyone at Cultaholic certainly does not condone Adam Blampied's actions, we all recognize that in choosing to make this situation public he's taken responsibility for what he's done and fully support his decision to seek professional help," they said.

This was not the first time a YouTuber had been accused of, and in some cases arrested for, manipulating their fans into sending them nude pictures or pornographic videos of themselves.

YouTube musician Michael Lombardo was sentenced to five years in prison in 2014 for coaxing underage female fans into sending him nude pictures.

A 26-year-old YouTuber specializing in Minecraft videos, LionMaker or Marcus Wilton, asked several underage fans for nudes and in one instance posting said pictures on his Twitter in 2016.

And just this June, YouTube singer Austin Jones was arrested by federal agents in Chicago on two counts of producing child pornography for allegedly enticing a number of girls into producing explicit videos for him.

Other YouTubers have been accused of grooming their fans for sexual favors, but have never been legally charged for their actions.

GMA News Online has reached out to the concerned parties for further comment. — AT, GMA News

Tags: sexualassault, sexualharassment
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