Smash Ultimate pro responds to sexual misconduct allegations involving minor
X/Niko_SSBUSuper Smash Bros Ultimate pro ‘Niko’ has responded to allegations of having an image of a minor on his phone alongside thousands of “weird” sexual images.
On February 27, Smash pro Niko’s ex-girlfriend, ‘Zoeie,’ posted a Twitlonger claiming that she allegedly uncovered thousands of “taboo and uncomfortable” images when going through his phone two years ago.
One of these images was a stock photo of a young girl wearing a Halloween costume. She immediately confronted Niko about it, and claimed he allegedly confessed to downloading it with sexual intentions, but never “acted on it.”
“I feel immense shame and disgust with myself for sitting on this information and not sharing it sooner, but I genuinely did not know how to form the words and I’m not sure I even do now,” she explained. “It has affected so many aspects of my life that I couldn’t even begin to grasp until we had broken up and I started therapy.”
In text conversation screenshots shared by Zoeie, Niko says that he only had the one photo and never acted on it because he was “too disgusted.”
X/cryingblusHowever, Niko has since responded to the allegations, claiming that he lied about why he had the picture to begin with because he was already mentally drained.
Smash pro denies sexual misconduct
In his own Twitlonger, Niko said he couldn’t remember why he had the image of the child on his phone and began panicking.
He has since claimed the photo in question was supposedly for a Twitter trend where users Google image searched “Halloween costume,” and posted the result that corresponded to their follower count.
“She asked me if I had the photo for sexual reasons and looked at me extremely tensely and I got deeply worried and started panicking,” Niko said. “I was extremely worried and didn’t know what to say… Since I couldn’t remember the reason I had the photo, I succumbed to pressure and decided to agree with her and just try to damage-control the situation.”
“I was genuinely in a terrible, irrational mental state, and I somehow thought that that lie would work or that it would make it okay if I said I never acted on it. Our relationship was always a little toxic and I had a deep history of just taking Zoeie’s side on things and arguments just so the situation would calm down, and I stupidly thought it would work in this situation.”
He further noted that once he remembered why he had the photo, he was worried she wouldn’t believe him, despite “admitting the literal worst thing ever.”
“This was without question the single dumbest and most regrettable situation I have ever placed myself in, and it was literally entirely my fault. I felt like the dumbest person alive and could not fathom how I did this to us in such a panic,” the Texas Smasher added.
Since responding to the allegations, Zoeie has privatized her X account, but prior to that, she claimed that she would be contacting her provider in an effort to obtain more messages from their relationship.