Singapore — Lawyers representing Dee Kosh have sent a cease and desist letter to Instagram user @_epaul, who was the first to level sexual harassment accusations against the local YouTuber.
Over the past weekend, at least five people have alleged that the 32-year-old asked for sexual favours from boys as young as half his age and tried to sexually groom teenage boys under the guise of wanting to work with them.
@_epaul was the first alleged victim to expose Dee — whose real name is Darryl Koshy. The 17-year-old claimed that Dee reached out to him to recruit him as talent for his YouTube channel but his messages were anything but professional.
The teenager, who was flattered that Dee was messaging him, was coerced into sending selfies to the YouTuber daily before being asked to send photos of his body. Sharing screenshots of his conversations with Dee, @_epaul added that many of the alleged victims were afraid to speak up because he had allegedly bullied them into remaining silent.
Several others have come forward to share similar stories of being harassed by the social media personality. Another alleged victim, Samuel, said he “was a little scared to talk about it at first because deekosh is a big name and I’m just a nobody”, while Twitter user Praveen claimed that Dee repeatedly offered him money to become friends with benefits.
In screenshots shared by Twitter user @diulei, Dee allegedly offered S$1,000 to a minor, inviting him over to do something presumably sexual before telling the 15-year-old that he could get back home by 1 am.
Soon after the allegations went viral, Dee said he was taking “the necessary steps to clear all this up” and that he was “denying all allegations made by the people who have said what they’ve said”.
He has since engaged a law firm to send a legal letter to @_epaul. The teenager shared a copy of the cease and desist letter from DC Law LLC on his Instagram account. The letter states that the references to Dee that @_epaul made are considered “offending content” and said:
“Our Client takes grave issue with the Offending Content because they are wholly untrue, and were published without any basis or justification. In addition, some of the allegations made against our Client were do so cavalierly, and couched in extremely deprecatory terms.
“Accordingly, out Client regards the Offending Content as being defamatory of him, and takes the position that you published and circulated the Offending Content with a malicious intent to cause him harassment, harm, loss, and damage.”
Asserting that Dee has “suffered loss and damage to his reputation because of the Offending Content”, the letter demands that @_epaul immediately cease and desist from publishing or communicating his previous accusations against Dee and cease and desist from making any other defamatory content about Dee.
Dee’s lawyers are asking the alleged victim to provide evidence that he has complied with the demands set out in the letter and sign an undertaking that the claims he made against Dee were harassing, untrue and/or defamatory, within two days. If @_epaul does not do so, the letter warns that Dee may take further legal action against him.
Sharing the letter that was sent to him in its entirety online, @_epaul indicated that he does not plan to comply with the demands set out in it. He wrote, “against all odds, we will continue the fight”.
Meanwhile, Power 98 FM, which employs Dee as a part-time radio show host, said he went on leave after the allegations surfaced. The radio station said in a statement: “POWER 98 does not tolerate any form of harassment. Dee Kosh is currently on leave.” It added that it would make no further comment.
Local YouTuber Dee Kosh accused of sexually harassing teenage boys