According to NME.com, U.S. federal judge has rejected an attempt by a member of Royel Otis to compel Reddit to disclose the identities of anonymous users who made allegations of sexual misconduct with a minor against him online. The application was filed by the Australian duo’s guitarist Royel Maddell, following a now-deleted thread posted last year on the r/triplej subreddit.
In the thread, some users alleged that Bressington had a sexual relationship with a minor who was also his music student. The allegations surfaced around the same time as the backlash concerning controversial lyrics in the 2025 single, “Moody”. The track allegedly brought accusations of misogyny, particularly for the line: “My girl’s a bitch when she’s moody.”
Both Maddell and singer Otis Pavlovic issued a statement addressing fans’ reservations following the song’s release by saying: “This song is written from a specific perspective, it is not intended to convey a broader view or standpoint about women in general. We apologize if anyone understood those lyrics otherwise.”
Court documents later said the song allegedly “proved to be a hit but also fodder because of its song lyrics, for anonymous people on the internet” who allegedly labelled Maddell as an alleged sexual “predator”, who had allegedly engaged in a non-consensual sexual relationship with a minor, while he was her music teacher.
Back in October, Bressington had asked the District Court of Northern California to order Reddit to hand over confidential user information, including alleged names, email addresses and phone numbers. He said the alleged information was required so that he could allegedly “contemplate” legal action for defamation.
Photo Credit: Owen Ela
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