A woman has accused Dominykas Zeglaitis, popularly known as Durte Dom, a member of David Dobrik’s Vlog Squad, of rape.
In an interview with Insider, the woman, using the pseudonym “Hannah,” explained the circumstances surrounding her traumatic encounter with Zeglaitis in 2018.
Hannah was a 20-year-old college student when the alleged rape occurred. She had never heard of Dobrik or the Vlog Squad, but when her friends invited her to join them for a party, she agreed.
Expecting an adventure, Hannah and her friends headed to an apartment belonging to some of the Vlog Squad members. Dobrik, Zeglaitis, Jason Nash, and several other Vlog Squad members were at the apartment when the women arrived. Immediately upon entering, Hannah said a camera was shoved in her face. She described the evening as “uncomfortable” and “high pressure from the moment we walked in.”
After Hannah arrived with her friends, they quickly felt pressured by Zeglaitis and the other members of the Vlog Squad. At one point, Zeglaitis cornered Hannah in a room alone, forcing her to kiss him before she could rejoin her friends.
Hannah and her friends were underage, but that didn’t stop their hosts from pressuring them into drinking. Sarah, one of Hannah’s friends and the group’s designated driver, said Zeglaitis continually urged Hannah to keep drinking.
By the time Zeglaitis allegedly led Hannah and her friend Audrey into his bedroom to have sex, Hannah said she was blackout drunk. Sarah recalled several members of the Vlog Squad attempting to catch glimpses of the trio mid-coitus before Zeglaitis locked the door.
When she was finally able to enter the room, Sarah said she found Hannah lying “limp” on the bed. She was allegedly too drunk to dress herself, stand on her own, or form cohesive thoughts. Hannah’s friends forced her to throw up in the apartment bathroom, for fear she had alcohol poisoning.
Hannah told Insider she didn’t recall having sex with Zeglaitis. When Sarah spoke to Hannah about the evening the following day and brought up sex, Hannah had no memory of it.
Despite this, Hannah said she tried to laugh the situation off. But that became harder to do after the vlog, titled “SHE SHOULD NOT HAVE PLAYED WITH FIRE!!” and featuring a “threesome plot,” was uploaded to YouTube a few days later. Hannah said the resulting video was an inaccurate portrayal of the evening, painting her as a willing participant.
“It seemed like I had a super fun night with these famous vloggers basically, which is not what happened,” she said. “Every single person that I know is messaging me, ‘You were in David Dobrik’s vlog, that’s so cool.’ Or ‘Oh my God, I saw the vlog you were in.'”
Insider reports that the video earned 800,000 views in its first day and ultimately racked up more than 5 million views before Zeglaitis removed it at Hannah’s request. Hannah said strangers recognized her on the street after the video went live.
A few weeks later, Hannah reached out to Zeglaitis and asked him to take the video down. A text conversation shared by Insider shows Hannah and Zeglaitis’ brief exchange, in which she shared her concerns about the evening and he agreed to take the video down.
Hannah said she has mostly worked through her trauma over the last few years. She refuses to let that night be a part of her “identity,” but she still suffers from occasional panic attacks and nightmares.
“I have nightmares where I’m raped, and when I’m not dreaming I can’t recall what Dom’s voice sounds like or what any of their voices sound like, but when I have these dreams I hear his voice,” Hannah said. “That’s really fucking weird and disturbing, knowing that somewhere in my brain this incident is so alive.”
While Zeglaitis no longer appears in Dobrik’s videos, his career is still going strong. He boasts more than a million followers on Instagram, more than 860,000 YouTube subscribers, and has a merchandise line on his website. He’s maintained his status despite multiple accusations of sexual assault. Even before his evening with Hannah, several women had accused him of unwanted and aggressive sexual advances.
Dobrik and Zeglaitis have both released videos in response to Insider’s article, though the bulk of each video deals with accusations of racist content in their old uploads rather than the fresh accusations of sexual assault.
“Consent is something that’s super, super important to me,” Dobrik said in a video released yesterday. He emphasized that he had changed as a creator and explained his reasons for distancing himself from Zeglaitis, adding, “I don’t align with some of the actions, and I don’t stand for any kind of misconduct, and I’ve been really disappointed by some of my friends. For that reason, I’ve separated from a lot of them.”
Zeglaitis likewise responded to Insider’s request for comment with a March 9 YouTube video. While he does apologize for his involvement in racist videos and talks about “taking accountability,” he neglects to mention Hannah’s rape allegations.
Hannah never contacted the police, and no charges have been filed against Zeglaitis, Insider reports.
Zeglaitis did not immediately respond to the Daily Dot’s request for comment.
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H/T Insider