Graham Sierota‘s family has spoken out in his defence after Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker called him out for sending Instagram messages to his 13-year-old daughter, Alabama.
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“Graham was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder,” the Echosmith drummer’s family said in a statement to the New York Post‘s Page Six. “He has difficulty understanding social cues.”
His family continued: “We have never publicly addressed this in the past, but given the events of the last few days, we feel compelled to speak out now to offer some additional context and insight into the unfortunate misunderstandings that occurred and clear up the deeply hurtful mischaracterisations of Graham.”
The 20-year-old was first called out by Barker’s daughter who posted screenshots of him allegedly messaging her from as far back as 2016 when she was just 10 years old.
“Hey guys ! So once again I am bringing this to your attention because I’m a 13 year old girl and he is 21 / 20 super creepy,” she wrote.
The screenshots showed Sierota calling her “beautiful” and inviting her to a barbecue.
Barker’s daughter reportedly showed her father the Instagram messages. An upset Barker told The Blast “there’s nothing cool, normal or OK about it at all”.
“When I found out a 20-year-old man was trying to get in touch with my 13-year-old daughter by filling her Instagram messages with party invites and compliments I was disgusted.
“That’s predatory behaviour and there is nothing cool, normal or OK about it at all.”
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Sierota has since apologised, claiming that he had not realised Alabama was a child and he had unwittingly made a “careless mistake”.
In a statement to Just Jared, he added: “I had invited Alabama to my parents’ big family BBQ along with many other people, and it wasn’t until she responded that I realised her age, at which point I apologised to her.”
“I’m really sorry and feel very badly about this.”
“I didn’t realise she was a minor and assumed she was my age. I made a careless mistake and this is a big lesson for me.”
“I would like to apologise again to Alabama, her dad Travis and her family.”
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