After the allegations yesterday by a woman from Vienna, Austria, Verena Celis, who claimed she was "emotionally and sexually manipulating" by Suicide Silence frontman Eddie Hermida while she was 17 and he was 32. In her statement, Celis noted that she began talking with Hermida online when she was 16, and at one point Hermida mistakenly assumed she was 18 (she did not correct him that she was in fact 17) and then she claims he began sending her explicit photos and eventually started asking for her to send some to him.
A few weeks later he gave me his snapchat and we occasionally snapped each other but nothing really happened, until he for some reason just assumed I turned 18. and I was scared to say I was still only 17. He started flirting and sending suggestive pictures of himself. I was in shock. He toyed with me and manipulated me into sending him nudes, which I was totally against. But hey, if your idol wants nudes, you send them. That's what I thought back then. Totally forgetting he was 32 at the time.
Her full statement can be read here.
At the time the allegations broke, we reached out to Hermida for a statement. He just reached out with the following statement, which the band will be posting to their socials shortly.
I apologize, first and foremost, to Verena, that she feels hurt, manipulated, and otherwise distressed by any of our past communication. I want to apologize to the people who support my work as a musician (both the fans and behind the scenes) for the discomfort, distrust, and damage these allegations have caused.
Most importantly, I would ask the music community to abstain from ridiculing, ostracizing, or otherwise harassing this young woman. It’s difficult enough for women to come forward with allegations about the behavior of men under any circumstances.
When Verena told me she’d turned 18, I believed her. I made it clear that our conversations should not be of a sexual nature until that time. However I have learned the lesson, the hard way, that it was wrong to engage in any kind of intimate conversations with someone so much younger than me.
I was raised by a single mom who taught me to be respectful to all women. I am ashamed that I have failed. I hope to earn the respect and approval of our fans and to prove that I am not the person this would seem to suggest.
Now more than ever, the responsibility falls on men to be mindful of our words and actions with people, and to listen to the voices of those who come forward, with respect and dignity.
