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Fortnite Gamer Arrested After Allegedly Assaulting Girlfriend on Livestream

Other gamers called the police after witnessing the incident.
Gavin Butler
Melbourne, AU
fortnite_mrdeadmoth

WARNING: This article contains distressing content.

A man has been charged with assault after allegedly hitting his partner as she begged him to stop playing the video game Fortnite. The incident was inadvertently broadcast to other gamers on Sunday night as the 26-year-old—who goes by the online name MrDeadMoth—was livestreaming from his home in Sydney’s south-west. Some of those viewers called the police, who subsequently arrested the man, charged him with common assault, and served him with an apprehended violence order, the ABC reports.

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Footage shows the man playing the popular online game as a woman off-screen asks him to come and eat dinner. “I’ll be out soon,” he insists, multiple times and with increasing aggression, as small objects appear to be tossed at him across the room. "Can you not? I said I'll be out soon," he yells. Then he gets up from his chair and storms out of view.

"No computer, I'm sick of this shit," the voice responds, seconds before a slapping noise is heard and the woman starts crying. "You're a fucking woman basher," she sobs. "You hear that, all you people there? He just hit me in the face."

WARNING: Graphic content

The video is distressing, and it goes on like this for several minutes. The man tells his partner to “fuck off you dog, you don't pay the fucking bills", and storms out of frame multiple times to the sound of slapping and screaming. "I hope all of you people know that I'm pregnant and he just bashed me," says the woman. A child starts crying somewhere in the background.

NSW Police arrested the man at 11.30pm on Sunday, according to Fairfax, and took him to Narellan police station before charging him with common assault. They also served an apprehended violence order.

Police said that the woman was not seriously injured, although she was “distressed and shaken”, and that two girls, aged three and 20 months, were home at the time of the alleged domestic violence incident.

The video has since been removed from Twitch—the Amazon-owned streaming service via which it was originally uploaded—but has been viewed more than 5 million times on Twitter.

The accused is due to appear in Camden Local Court on Thursday.

Domestic violence help and advice is available. You can contact 1800 RESPECT.