Between the Buried and Me guitarist Dustie Waring has stepped down from the band’s forthcoming Parallax II tour following allegations of sexual assault.
The allegations were first posted on the Between the Buried and Me Reddit page (trigger warning: sexual assault), where an anonymous user accused Waring of rape, sharing screengrabs of alleged conversations with the guitarist.
In a statement shared to Instagram Stories, Waring stated, “I have recently been made aware of allegations from 5 years ago which were posted this weekend on Reddit. I do not condone non-consensual sex and have never acted without consent in any part of my private life or maliciously taken advantage of anyone.
“These allegations have come as a complete shock, having dedicated my life to being of service to people that need help in many forms of recovery. I will therefore be taking some time to spend with my family to focus on maintaining my several years of sobriety which will include sitting out the Parallax II tour.
“With the exception of this statement, I will be dealing with this matter privately with my bandmates and discussing any future action with my lawyer in order to protect myself and my family.”
Waring has not been arrested or charged with any offence relating to the allegations at this stage.
BTBAM have since shared their own statement on social media, writing, “Dustie Waring will not be performing on the Parallax 2: Future Sequence Tour. We will have a session guitarist filling in at all scheduled dates.”
The band are due to commence their tour playing 2012 album Parallax II: Future Sequence in its entirety on June 16 in Charleston, South Carolina.