Allegations against Between The Buried And Me guitarist Dustie Waring surfaced in May via an anonymous user on Reddit, who claimed that she was raped and impregnated by Waring while drunk. At the time, MetalSucks reached out to Waring, whose legal representation provided a comment saying "Dustie Waring of BTBAM/Glass Casket is aware of the allegations and working on a statement that is both sensitive to victims of sexual assault but also sufficiently communicates their adamant denial of these allegations."
Since those allegations, Between The Buried And Me announced Waring would sit out their ongoing tour. Waring's lawyer has now issued a lengthy statement regarding the allegations, which you can read in full below. This statement was provided to Metal Injection as a PDF from Waring's representation.
"We write on behalf of our client Dustie Waring to deny in the strongest terms the malicious and false accusations that have recently surfaced against him in an anonymous post on a Reddit page. In that post, a female, former friend and fan is now preying on him by accusing him of raping her in a bathroom after a concert more than five years ago.
"In support of her accusations, she has manipulated and posted several screenshots of Instagram messages between Mr. Waring and herself – reducing seven months of messages to just four screenshots and leaving out other messages that do not support her allegations in a vicious attempt to destroy Mr. Waring's character and reputation and personally gain attention for herself by posing as the 'victim' of a crime that never took place. Additionally, she has invented the story that there were confrontations between Mr. Waring and a male friend of hers who accompanied her that evening, and who tried to prevent Mr. Waring from having sex with her that evening.
"In fact, Mr. Waring has never denied that he had sexual intercourse with his accuser after the concert, but steadfastly maintains that the encounter was a consensual act between the two adults. As proof, Mr. Waring's accuser goes on to discuss traveling to attend subsequent concerts during his UK tour, telling him she wants him to visit the UK to 'do it again sometime,' and suggests they 'rent an Airbnb', etc. In her Reddit post, she alleges she didn't remember they had sex, and that she was 'sore' after their encounter; however, she acknowledges remembering their encounter and states that she had not been 'sore,' as she earlier claimed.
"Her messages show that two days after the alleged incident, she made a two-hour trip to visit him in a different city on the tour, during which time they had a second sexual encounter. Over the next few months, she continued to message Mr. Waring on Instagram and sent him numerous explicit messages and photos, making her recent claims of having been impregnated dubious at best. She recounts the details of their sexual encounter (despite claiming not to remember it in her Reddit post), describes it as 'amazing', asks him if 'it was good for him', tells him 'thanks for last night, it was crazy fun :)', and agrees that they had 'good sex'.
"Mr. Waring was blindsided by these accusations and has been forced to suffer serious personal consequences – financial and otherwise – as a direct result of his accuser's conduct. It is obvious from the weight of the evidence that her accusations are false, and that he is innocent of the acts of which he is accused and has steadfastly denied having any inappropriate contact with this woman. Unfortunately, her false accusations are the type of thing that makes it even more difficult for actual victims of sexual violence to come forward and to be believed.
"Because of these allegations, Mr. Waring has been advised to take a leave of absence from music to avoid further damage to the projects he's associated with, but he is obviously looking forward to getting back to making music after the summer. He has demanded that his accuser cease and desist from continuing her baseless accusations. Should she fail to do so, Mr. Waring will have no choice but to publicize the entire set of Instagram messages to provide the full details and context for the messages his accuser has posted, which flatly contradict her story, demonstrate her lack of credibility, and reveal her actual motivation for making these baseless and defamatory allegations. Furthermore, he will take legal action against all parties involved to defend himself and his reputation from this woman's allegations."
