After heading out to celebrate in Los Angeles to cap off a successful VidCon, the 26-year-old YouTuber Calum McSwiggan — whose LGBT and lifestyle-focused channel counts roughly 63,000 subscribers — said he had the worst night of his life.
“I was separated from my friends and beaten up by three guys,” McSwiggan captioned an Instagram photo from the hospital (below), where he said he was being treated for three broken teeth and six stitches in his forehead. “The authorities should have been there to help and protect me but instead they treated me like a second class citizen…I’ve never felt so terrified to be a gay man in the public eye.”
A friend and fellow LGBT creator, Riyadh Khalaf, who was with McSwiggan that night but did not witness the incident, tweeted that the attackers “knew where we were going to be because of our posts on social media before we went out and even said our names as they beat him.” But while many of McSwiggan’s friends and supporters within the YouTube community rallied around him in support, the local police released a statement yesterday stating that McSwiggan “had no visible injuries” when they responded to the call, and that they were ultimately “unable to substantiate the assault.”
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Furthermore, the West Hollywood Station of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department told The Advocate in a statement that McSwiggan was subsequently arrested himself for vandalizing a car. Once being placed into a cell at the station, officers observed him “injuring himself with the handle and receiver to a payphone inside the cell,” according to the statement, which is how McSwiggan ended up in the hospital. A booking photo taken after his arrest — but prior to when he was placed in the cell — seemingly shows no injuries.
McSwiggan, for his part, says that he’s been advised to stay silent before a court appearance this morning, but encouraged friends to DM him if they wanted to hear his side of the story. Earlier today, he added, “We’re at the court house but they have no record of anything. As soon as our lawyers give us the all clear we will explain everything fully.”
