Photo: Luke Hannaford
Neck Deep have announced the departure of their guitarist Lloyd Roberts after he was accused of sending an 'explicit message' to an underage fan.The rising Wrexham pop-punkers, who currently sit at No.8 in the UK Albums Chart with Life's Not Out To Get You, first sent out a brief tweet about how seriously they take such allegations:
We are very aware of the accusations being made and we take them very seriously. Please give us a moment to get to the bottom of this.
— Neck Deep (@NeckDeepUK) August 22, 2015
They then gave fans a much longer message:
"Yesterday, there were some allegations aimed towards our band. We feel that these situations should always be approached with the utmost regard for all parties, so we thank you for your patience whilst we have dealt with this matter internally.
"Whilst the full facts of the matter at hand are still unclear, our guitarist Lloyd Roberts has decided to step down from Neck Deep to focus on his family, as he does not feel comfortable having his reputation, or that of the band sullied further by these accusations.
"We sincerely apologise to anyone who has been caused distress or been affected by any of these events. As a band, we absolutely treasure our fans, we would not be anywhere without them, and we would never want them to feel disrespected or taken advantage of.
"We would, however, like to ask you all to help be part of the solution, to not take part in posting rumours and gossip on the Internet in the absence of clear facts. We also ask that you please refrain from attacking the people making these statements via social media - we do not want anyone to feel victimised in any way.
"Further, we cannot emphasise enough that serious allegations of this kind should ALWAYS be brought to the attention of the relevant authorities, and we urge anyone genuinely affected to use those official channels.
"All shows will go ahead as planned, and we thank you all for your continued support and belief in Neck Deep."
The band are set to play on the main stage at Reading and Leeds Festival this weekend.
