Gay YouTube star charged with felony vandalism, filing false claim of hate crime
LOS ANGELES, California ,— A high-profile gay YouTube personality who claimed he suffered a violent hate crime has been charged with felony vandalism and filing a false police report . He pleaded not guilty to both charges. In June, Calum McSwiggan reported being assaulted after leaving a West Hollywood nightclub. Police said they “were unable to substantiate the assault,” which McSwiggan says was a hate crime. The police subsequently arrested McSwiggan for allegedly vandalizing a car. The police say McSwiggan was not visibly injured at the time of his arrest and he harmed himself with a pay phone in a police holding cell . McSwiggan admitted to harming himself to get out of the cell but said other injuries on his body — three broken teeth and cuts, scrapes, and bruises on his back — were from being assaulted. “In a moment of desperation to get out of the cell, I took the pay phone off the wall and hit myself once across the forehead with it as hard as I could,