Megadeth’s David Ellefson has issued a statement denying accusations of grooming following the surfacing of graphic texts and video on Twitter over the weekend.
Ellefson shared the following via Instagram:
“Dear Fans & Friends,
As you may or not know, some private and personal conversations and interactions have surfaced online, released with ill intention by a third party who was not authorized to have them or share them. While certainly embarrassing, I want to address it as openly and honestly as possible.
As much as it’s not something I’m proud of, these were private, adult interactions that were taken out of context and manipulated to inflict maximum damage to my reputation, my career and family.
The other party involved has made a statement which you can see below. I thank her for doing so and hope that this clarifies that the situation was not at all as presented.
Humbly Yours,
David Ellefson.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/COr6VX8HjmM/
The woman involved issued the following statement to Instagram which featured the caption, “Sharing again since I forgot to clarify which posts I was talking about. Don’t wanna leave any room for discussion here. This is the truth and the full truth”:
“I’m the girl people are talking about in the posts about David Ellefson right now, and I just want to tell my side of the story because people are sharing misinformation and the situation is getting out of hand without the truth being out there.
Yes, those video calls did happen, but I was the one to initiate them and never was I underage. I was always a consenting adult. Nothing inappropriate ever happened before that. It was all consensual, I’m not a victim and I have not been groomed in the slightest as I was the one to initiate it. I was just naive enough to record him and share it with a friend without his permission. In the end, it was all consensual and all online.
I don’t know how it got to this point, but a lot of information is being left out by people purposely trying to harm him. I would ask that anyone sharing these personal, private videos or any misinformation about them to please stop.”