On Monday, April 11, popular YouTube personality and comedian Toby Turner responded to allegations of physical and emotional abuse made against him by an ex-girlfriend.
Turner, also known by his moniker Tobuscus, is a psuedo-celebrity and popular YouTube personality known for his wild, unpredictable humor and outgoing, hyperactive mannerisms. Though not universally loved, many fans saw Turner as an icon and a role-model. His ambitions ranged from creative content on his three channels, Toby Turner, Toby Games and Tobuscus (channels dedicated to vlogging, gaming and creative projects respectively), to various collaborations with other YouTube personalities, such as Philip DeFranco. Turner also served as a host of various events, notably the Toshiba "Set me Free" tour for MTV in August 2009. However, the image of Toby Turner was dealt a severe blow last week when ex-girlfriend and blogger April Fletcher released a damning post on her Tumblr blog detailing a lengthy nightmare-relationship with Turner.
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In the post, titled The Truth About Tobsucus, Fletcher, also known as Aprileff, alleged that Turner had cheated on her, abused her, drugged her and raped her throughout the course of their on-again-off-again relationship between the years of 2011 and 2014. She described instances where Turner had violent emotional outbreaks, tore off her clothes (despite her vocal opposition), and enticed her into alcohol and drug abuse. Within hours, the post went viral. Fans and other Internet personalities alike began coming out in their support of either Fletcher or Turner through Twitter and YouTube. DramaAlert, a TMZ style YouTube news channel run by veteran blogger Daniel Keem, called further attention to Fletcher's testimony with a lengthy video in which the entirety of the blog post was narrated. The YouTube community anticipated a response from Turner himself, who remained radio silent about the issue for three days. Turner finally released his response April 11, as this brief video:
From there the story only got deeper. Soon, more of Turner's ex-girlfriends began posting their own videos detailing their personal experiences. Some, like YouTuber Amelia Talon, corroborated Fletcher's story, stating in a video that has since been removed that you could trade her name for Fletcher's in many of the same circumstances. Almost every YouTuber that posted a video, including DeFranco, a long time friend of Turner's, verified that in their personal experience, Turner was every bit as awful of a boyfriend as Fletcher's narrative described.
However, most of the stories coming out paint a vividly different shade of the events from Fletcher's. While Fletcher insists that Turner is a monster unworthy of support, many of Turner's friends and other exes describe Turner as emotionally and mentally damaged, suffering from drug and alcohol abuse and ADHD.
"He rose to fame very quickly," Melanie Murphy said in her own video on the subject, "and all of the sudden he had all this attention and all this fame, and I don't think he handled it very well." It is not known as of the writing of this article whether Turner will go to trial based on these allegations. People following the story are doubtful, as Fletcher's account, while heartfelt, offered no evidence to support its claims, aside from a few dubious screenshots from text conversations.
It is not known whether Turner plans to respond more fully to the allegations made against him. Fletcher continues to be vocal in her campaign against Turner on her personal Twitter and Tumblr blog. Daniel Keem posts updates on the story through DramaAlert, and has stated that he invited Turner onto the show to defend himself but has not yet received a response.
