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Yogscast CEO Mark “Turps” Turpin has resigned after admitting he sent “inappropriate messages” to “several members of [the Yogscast] community”. The news comes just days after Yogscast dropped Matthew “Caffcast” Meredith after eight members of Meredith’s moderation team went public with allegations of sexual harassment.
The accusations came to light when Discord moderators posted a statement stating Meredith “has been abusing his position as a content creator for at least the last three years to pursue sexual relationships with those he has power and influence over”. It further alleged he “used his position as a point of coercion and control” and as the team had seen “corroborated and proven evidence”, they were all standing down.
Hi guys, update on this thread: thanks to those who contacted me. I'm taking all reports very seriously and passing them onto some expert guidance people who are way smarter than me. I've been told this will take time to do properly so bear with us!
— Lewis Brindley (@YogscastLewis) July 10, 2019
After Yogscast co-founder Lewis Brindley invited community members to come forward after the allegations about Meredith’s conduct went public, multiple accusations about Turpin also began to surface. Whilst Turpin was on holiday leave, the company worked alongside HR as allegations mounted up, which included claims Turpin sent inappropriate messages to community members on social media.
“Just to let you know I’ve stepped down as CEO of the Yogscast. When I recently said we expected the highest levels of professionalism from our talent, I need to be held to those standards too,” Turpin said in a statement to InfluencerUpdate.biz.
“I have sent some inappropriate messages to several members of our community and I’m deeply embarrassed about this error of judgment. There’s no justification or excuse for my behaviour. I was in a position of considerable responsibility and you all deserved better from me. If you’ve been upset by my actions, I’m very sorry.”
“It’s very important to me that we’re held to high standards, and [Turpin] made the right decision to face up to his actions,” Brindley wrote on Reddit. “I want to thank those who contacted me at lewis@yogscast.com and apologise to them directly for this. I was also sad to hear that some who came forward suffered bullying on social media, accusing them of faking or making up stories, which is not okay.
“It’s been an eye-opening week for me – we owe everything to our community so it’s important we deal with bad stuff like this responsibly. I’ve seen actual evidence that looks fake, and fake evidence that looks truthful – so we needed time to look into all of this.”
Brindley has also since made a follow-up statement on Reddit confirming that the company is also looking into separate allegations against another Yogscast member, this time Paul “Sjin” Sykes.
“Following your emails – we’re looking into some historical claims against Sjin and I’ve asked him to step away from main channel streams in the meantime,” Brindley said. “As I’ve said before, we are trying to do the right thing and take these claims seriously and would rather everybody didn’t jump to conclusions.”
