Syndicate denies sexually assaulting two ex-partners

As more cases of sexual harassment in the gaming community are being uncovered, one of the most shocking revelations involves streamer Tom "Syndicate" Cassell.

(Picture: ProSyndicate)

The YouTuber, accused of sexual assault by two different women took to Twitter to voice his concern at the severity of the statements, adding that he will be putting up a formal statement in the next few days addressing the situation.

“I honestly don't know what to say with all these allegations being made against me. I'm in actual shock. I seriously am. I want to address every single thing that's been said. I will be making a statement regarding all the false allegations in the following days.”

Twitch streamer Natalie 'ZombiUnicorn' Casanova was the first one to claim that Syndicate had sexually abused her while they were in a relationship in  2016. Retelling an encounter she had with him at an event called Legends of Gaming, Casanova shared the details of the incident.

"I went to his place at night, I always made sure that we had condoms. One night, we were drinking, and he said he didn't have any. I said 'we can only continue if you pull out because I don't take birth control.’”

Eventually, as things were progressing, she continued: "When the time came, I was on top of him, he was saying that he was about to, and I was like ok I'm getting off, and he held me down physically so that I could not get off of him. I smacked him and said 'no, stop!' I immediately went to clean myself up in the bathroom, and I found condoms in there."

As an important YouTuber with almost 10 million subscribers on his main channel alone, Casanova would add that such a position of power scared her away from trying to make a big deal about the events of that night for many years.

• Read More: Twitch respond to streamer abuse accusations: "We are committed to working to make the streaming community safer"

"Because of his position in power, I saw him a little bit longer. Then when I realized it was just not working out between us, I cut it off. I tried to maintain friendship and be cordial, because of his position in power, again, but then one day I said 'f**ck this' and I blocked him, and moved on."

On top of the video, Zombi would later tweet that Syndicate shared nude pictures of her to his friends without consent.

“I forgot to mention in the vid, but he also took pics/videos of me naked & sent them to his friends without my consent/knowledge & I only found out because he bragged about ‘showing me off to his mates’ after he did it. My goal in sharing all of this is for him to stop this behaviour.”

Soon after ZombiUnicorn's video, another woman, Kaitlin Witcher came forward claiming to be an ex-girlfriend of Syndicate. She shared a harrowing story across a series of videos, alleging how Syndicate forced her to do multiple things against her will, from drinking to sexual relations.

“When I was 18-years-old, he was my first boyfriend and I didn't know better. He would try to have me pressured into drinking, even though I was very adamant I didn't want to because I had alcoholics in the family. He didn't care, he would put drinks in front of me and demand for me to drink them."

She retold an instance in a hotel room where Syndicate would scold her for refusing to do certain things, while also violating her private space as she was trying to take a bath.

"We were in a hotel once and he wanted me to perform X on to him and he wanted to perform X on to me but I didn't want to. He was yelling at me and I was sitting on the floor crying. Also, I would try to shower and he would barge in and sit in the toilet and open the door 'cause he wanted to watch. I tried to wrap myself in a towel, and he ripped the towel out of my hands, so I grabbed another towel and held on to it as long as I could, and he sat there, smirking."

"He wanted to do things. I said no. He said yes. And so he grabbed me by the ankles and pulled me, and I tried going away saying 'no, please no, please no' just begging him not to. He told me to be quiet and just take. So I laid there with my hands over my mouth so I couldn't make a noise because I was crying so hard."

As of the time of writing, Syndicate has yet to publish his follow-up statement.