New details have emerged in the ongoing controversy surrounding former Megadeth bassist David Ellefson.
According to a police report obtained by Rolling Stone, the rocker admitted to engaging in a series of virtual sexual interactions with a 19 year old Dutch fan.
In the report, the bassist explained that he first met the woman following a 2019 gig in Holland. “They struck up a friendship and continued chatting through social media,” the police report noted. “The second time they met in person was in the Netherlands at a hotel lobby to have coffee and a soda. He believes this was February 2020. He stated there was no physical contact and they just had a conversation. He stated there has never been any sexual physical contact between the two.”
Though Ellefson insisted the in-person meetings never turned sexual, he admitted that their online interactions did. “He stated they had about four to five masturbating encounters,” the report explained, adding that “the last online sexual encounter was around February 2021.”
The musician’s partner later admitted “she had recorded two to three videos of him masturbating without his consent or knowledge.” The woman insisted she only shared the videos with friends, however one of the clips of Ellefson soon leaked online, leading to a whirlwind of controversy, including accusations that the rocker was “grooming” an underage fan.
Ellefson provided pictures of the woman’s ID to police proving her age, along with screenshots of their shared Snapchat and WhatsApp messages. The bassist is currently pursuing revenge-porn charges against the individual who leaked the video. He does not believe the woman with whom he shared the encounters is to blame, as she “has not extorted him in any way” and willingly posted an explanation on her own social media stating in part: “Yes, those video calls did happen, but I was the one to initate [sic] them and never was I underage, I was always a consenting adult. Nothing inappropriate ever happened before that. It was all consensual, I’m not a victim and I have not been groomed in the slightest as I was the one to initiate it. I was just naive enough to record him and share it with a friend without his permission. In the end, it was all consensual and all online.”
The scandal surrounding Ellefson began in early May when graphic images of the rocker emerged online. At the time, the Megadeth co-founder called them “private and personal conversations and interactions,” which, while “certainly embarrassing,” were released “to inflict maximum damage to my reputation, my career and family.”
After initially withholding judgement on the situation, Megadeth severed ties with Ellefson. In a statement, frontman Dave Mustaine explained that “with an already strained relationship, what has already been revealed now is enough to make working together impossible moving forward.”