#mike lombardo
In a tumblr post (http://olyusha.tumblr.com/post/79236837547/hmm-ok-well-more-lets-start-with-weird) his former girlfriend Olga has revealed that Milsom raped and otherwise sexually and emotionally abused her over the course of their six month relationship, which started when she was just 15 and progressed to physical abuse shortly after she turned 16, under the legal age of consent in Missouri. The two met at Vidcon 2010 when she was 14 and he was 21.
This is not the only post Olga has made about Milsom’s behaviour, this just being the first to spark widespread condemnation of the musician. Along with details of multiple alleged assaults they include a screen grab of a conversation between them which apparently shows Milsom acknowledging his actions, saying that “certainly there are things about our relationship that were questionable”.
In regards to coming forward now she has said that:
“it took me a long time to come to terms with the fact that it wasn’t my fault ok i blamed myself for a very long time i figured there must’ve been something wrong with me if i wasn’t enjoying it because so many girls my own age would’ve fucking killed to be where i was and i had to put it to the back of my mind for a long time because it was so shameful and i didn’t want to admit to anyone that was skeptical of our relationship that maybe i’d been wrong and stupid and now years down the road i’ve had a lot of time to think about it and i’ve learned a lot more about sexual abuse and i started to really understand and line up the events”
Reaction
Milsom’s work has already been removed from the DFTBA records online shop and from the lineup of this years Summer in the City event by former close friends Liam Dryden and Alan Lastufka, organiser of SitC and co-founder of DFTBA records respectively and who -along with other prominent YouTubers- have also made posts repudiating Milsom’s actions.
“I am making no attempt to hide the fact Tom and I were once friends. He spent a weekend at my house, we worked on numerous songs and other musical projects together back in 2009. But hearing about some of the things he’s done, and was doing back then, has hurt, and I no longer wish to make another dollar off his fame or name”
Hank Green has also made a statement regarding it, making particular mention of the fact that the two first met at VidCon, the largest annual event within the community.
“I met Olga in 2010 at VidCon. She was a very smart, very clever, very cool young woman. […] I had no inkling that they had become a couple. I am horrified and extremely disappointed in myself that I was not able to realize that this was happening and put a stop to it […] […]the more fact that it existed infuriates me…sexual relationships need to be equitable and they can’t be when people are in dramatically different life stages or when one person enters the relationship as a fan of another.”
This follows a number of other allegations against popular YouTubers, namely against musicians Eddplant, Kelly Montoya and most notably, Mike Lombardo, who was sentenced to 5 years in prison and made to register as a sex offender just 2 weeks ago.
Lombardo was made the subject of an FBI investigation after a friend of a underage girl he was grooming tipped them off to his activities and evidence was subsequently found on his phone.
Wider Problem
Much has been said about “fangirls” and the exaggerated social gap that has developed between popular producers of YouTube content and the consumers of that content since the end of the relatively egalitarian culture of the website’s beginning. This gap is particularly concerning when those consumers tend to be young and impressionable.
Examples of the power creators wield over their viewers include fairly innocuous things like asking for votes to win competitions or crowd sourcing funding for concerts.
However, there have also been incidents that led to accusations of overinflated egos, such as people crowd surfing over fans at gatherings, mismanaged events that led to serious injuries and sometimes of outright exploitation.
The question now is whether what these YouTubers are believed to have done (in Lombardo’s case convicted of) is simply an example of the wider societal rape and sexual assault problem and the repugnant actions of individuals, or, whether the attitude of superiority that exists within some sections of the YouTube community has become a far, far more serious problem.
The fact is that her age and their relationship was no great secret. She was his fan, and they met at VidCon.
There is a responsibility in that and it belongs to everyone.
Five months ago YouTube musician Mike Lombardo became the subject of an FBI probe into allegations that he solicited nude video and photographs from underage fans and in turn sent them nude images of himself.
That probe has now come to a head with Lombardo being arrested on July 20th and charged with four counts relating to producing and receiving child pornography as well as coercing a person under the age of eighteen to engage in sexually explicit activity.
He was held for five days before being released under the conditions that he not use the internet, surrender his passport to the court, submit to a psychiatric evaluation, be electronically monitored, stick to a strict evening curfew and not have any contact with anyone under the age of eighteen.
December Raid
All of this began at the end of 2011 after 19 year old Deanna Archetto informed the FBI that a 15 year old fan had arranged with Lombardo to meet for a “sex liason” on new years eve.
Archetto was herself informed by a 17 year old girl referred to in the FBI affidavit as “Victim 2” who herself engaged in “sexually explicit discussions” with Lombardo.
An examination of the 15 year olds cell phone lead to the discovery of “multiple nude images of Lombardo” and “multiple explicit text messages”.
Using this to gain a search warrant the FBI conducted a raid on Lombardo’s apartment on December 30th and the subsequent search revealed video of a 14 year old girl masturbating “fully nude on a bed with her legs spread apart” on his laptop and video of a 16 year old masturbating on his cell phone.
Since then nothing has been seen or heard from Lombardo and he has not spoken out about what happened on any of his social networking accounts.
Jail Time
Should Lombardo be convicted the total amount of jail time he could face is hard to predict with the minimum sentence for each of the charges meaning anywhere from 5 to 15 years in prison (60 in total).
Ultimately a lot will depend on how he pleads and with many of the facts unknown any speculation is just that.
Community Reaction
An air of resignation and muted shock has pervaded the community reaction with many stating that this latest development had been expected for a long time and was “the natural conclusion” to the investigation.
In a tumblr post Vlogger thatzak said that
“What I can’t get over about all this is how much power someone with a mildly sizable audience can have and it’s really fucking frightening”
A lot of posts centered around the victims and it was stressed that people not forget them or allow them to be blamed for the actions of their alleged abuser.
Leakynews editor and leakycon founder Melissa Anelli placed particular emphasis on that last bit
“There will be a lot said about this in the next few days. I want to say this. Blame these girls just once, even a little, and it’s probably best you (in this order) look up the definition of informed consent, unfollow me, and stop thinking about ever saying words to me”
Predictably,it happened anyway.
Regardless of how the trial plays out, with the extent of the evidence against him made public it would seem that his career in creating music for a young audience is dead and buried.
I’d just like to state that although this blog has been following the Lombardo story since its inception I take no pleasure in writing about it.
In no way is this paper a gossip rag through which you can follow the downfall of Internet personalities, if that’s what you’re here for please unfollow me.
I write about these things in the belief that only by reporting everything -both good and ill- can I present an accurate picture of the community at large and in doing so show the value that it has as a medium.
“The good things don’t always soften the bad things, but vice-versa, the bad things don’t necessarily spoil the good things and make them unimportant”
Stay safe out there peeps, YouTube people are still people and therefore capable of all the awful things other people are.
Even the ones whose songs have made you cry.
Your Editor
John.
