One of Twitch’s former biggest streamers has admitted to sending “inappropriate” messages to a minor but says he’s “no f***ing predator or paedophile”.
Dr DisRespect, real name Herschel “Guy” Beahm, had more than four million followers on Twitch before his channel was abruptly removed in 2020.
He was only halfway through a two-year exclusivity deal with the platform.
Now, Beahm, 42, has addressed the ban to his followers on X, saying: “Were there Twitch Whisper messages with an individual minor back in 2017? The answer is yes.”
Twitch Whisper was a messaging functionality on the site.
“Were there real intentions behind these messages, the answer is absolutely not,” Beahm’s statement added.
The explanation comes after a former Twitch employee shared an explosive post on X on Friday that appeared to refer to Beahm, although it did not name him.
Cody Conners, who worked on Twitch’s strategic partnerships team until last year, wrote: “He got banned because he got caught sexting a minor in the then existing Twitch Whispers product. He was trying to meet up with her at TwitchCon.”
Shortly after Conners’ post went viral, Beahm appeared to deny the allegations, posting on X: “I didn’t do anything wrong, all this has been probed and settled, nothing illegal, no wrongdoing was found, and I was paid.”
In an earlier post, he said Twitch had paid out his whole contract despite the ban.
After the ban he moved to YouTube, where he has more than 4.7 million followers and still streams regularly.
Game studio drops Beahm
Midnight Society, a game studio that was working with Beahm on a new game, has now dropped him.
Robert Bowling, a co-founder of the studio, posted on Tuesday: “If you inappropriately message a minor, I cannot work with you. Period. I promised to only act on facts, and I did.”
On Tuesday, about an hour before Beahm published his statement, Bloomberg quoted three unnamed sources who it said confirmed Conners’ claims.
Tech news site The Verge also spoke to an anonymous Twitch employee who backed up the allegations.
In his lengthy X statement, Beahm said the decision to leave the Midnight Society studio was “painful” and “collective”.
“Our team is full of incredibly talented and good people that have high career ambitions and families,” he said, “and I’d never want to jeopardise the culture we have carefully crafted.”
Read more from Sky News:
How to opt out of your Instagram being used to train AI
First samples collected from ‘far side’ of the moon
Family sues NASA after home hit by debris from space
Be the first to get Breaking News
Install the Sky News app for free
‘They want me to disappear’
“These were casual, mutual conversations that sometimes leaned too much in the direction of being inappropriate, but nothing more,” Beahm added on X about the conversations with a minor.
“Nothing illegal happened, no pictures were shared, no crimes were committed, I never even met the individual.
“I should have never entertained these conversations to begin with. That’s on me. That’s on me as an adult, a husband and a father.”
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
However, he hit out at people accusing him of being predatory.
“I’m no f***ing predator or paedophile. Are you kidding me? Anyone that truly knows me f***ing knows where I stand on those things with those types of people.”
Despite the studio dropping him, Beahm said he won’t be going anywhere and plans to carry on streaming.
“I’m taking an extended vacation with my family […] and I’m coming back with a heavy weight off my shoulders.
“They want me to disappear… yeah f***ing right.”
