Megadeth’s David Ellefson Denies Grooming Allegations
UPDATE: On May 24, Megadeth released a statement announcing they had parted ways with Ellefson. Two days later, Ellefson revealed that he's pursuing "revenge porn" charges over the incident described below.
David Ellefson has denied allegations that he was grooming an underage girl online after several interactions leaked on social media over this past weekend.
Screenshots and explicit video clips of Ellefson have surfaced on Twitter and Instagram, which Ellefson has since referred to as "some private and personal conversations and interactions."
"[They were] 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," the Megadeth bassist wrote on his Instagram, with a screenshot of a statement that he says was from the woman who was involved.
"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," he continued. "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."
The woman who partook in the exchanges with Ellefson apparently wrote the statement on her Instagram, which currently only has two posts — both of which pertain to this particular situation.
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.
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 the people purposely trying to harm him. I would ask that anyone sharing these personal private videos or any misinformation about them to please stop.
In her initial post, she also wrote, "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."
See all of the posts below.