YouTuber Pyrocynical denies grooming allegations

Niall "Pyrocynical" Comas, the British YouTube star with over 4.4M subscribers, was recently accused by a fan of grooming him when the latter was just 15 years old.

The accusation was brought forward on the 29th October, by a Twitter user that goes by the name Ivory Rasmus.

tw // grooming

pyrocynical groomed me, and i have screenshots to prove it. I've been sitting thinking about this shit nonstop, being angry, confused, and sad that I've had to accept this since i was 15, but i never said anything cus i felt powerless

— ivory rasmus 1312 🏳️‍🌈 (@IIovebird) October 29, 2020

"Pyrocynical groomed me, and I have screenshots to prove it," Ivory claimed. "I've been sitting thinking about this shit nonstop, being angry, confused, and sad that I've had to accept this since I was 15, but I never said anything cus I felt powerless (sic)."

Ivory further claimed that Pyrocynical asked for explicit photos of Ivory.

(Picture: Pyrocynical)

Around two weeks have passed since the accusations and the YouTuber has finally responded, with a statement on his subreddit.

In his response, Pyrocynical says that he while he doesn't deny partaking in some questionable conversations, which he says "many of you will understandably consider being weird and distasteful," he categorically denies doing anything illegal.

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"I have never sent or solicited nude or IRL content. I have never tried to engineer an illicit encounter or lure anybody into anything. I have never built a dialogue, connection or relationship with the intention of manipulating or exploiting anyone," claimed Pyrocynical in the statement posted on Reddit.

He further claims that Ivory never disclosed his age to him (at the time, Pyrocynical was 19, and Ivory, 15), nor did he Ivory ever claim to feel uncomfortable over what they are doing.

(Picture: Pyrocynical) 

In the second part of the statement, Pyrocynical provides several screenshots of another individual who engaged in similar conversations with Ivory.

The person's name is censored, but Pyrocynical claims they are of a similar age to Pyrocynical and they too were unaware that Ivory was just 15 years old, with Pyrocynical suggesting that Ivory deliberately withheld his age and that it was, in fact, Ivory that was being manipulative.

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In a series of tweets as a response to Pyrocynical's statement, Ivory says that the situation is "a perfect representation of why victims don't come out about their experiences."

This situation is a perfect representation of why victims don't come out about their experiences. I have ample proof and all of my friends who knew pyro know what happened happened. I don't need to prove this shit to random strangers

— ivory rasmus 1312 🏳️‍🌈 (@IIovebird) November 12, 2020

Ivory adds that all he wanted to do was to "progress the conversation around weeding out exploitation of minors," a situation he claims "runs rampant in all online communities."

Over the past several months gaming and the worlds of Twitch and YouTube have experienced their own #MeToo moment with victims feeling empowered to come forward with their stories of abuse. Twitch has taken steps to remove a number of the perpetrators from the platform.

At the time of writing this article, Pyrocynical had not offered a response to the latest of Ivory's tweets.