Celebrity LGBTQ YouTuber Admits on Facebook He Faked His Own Injuries

​9/29-- Today the Los Angeles District Attorney's office changed their case against Youtuber and LGBT rights commentator Calum McSwiggan to a felony vandalism charge. On September 26, McSwiggan, 26, pleaded not guilty to one felony count of vandalism causing over $400 of damage and one misdemeanor count of making a false report to a peace officer.

​The case stems from an incident on June 27 when McSwiggan was visiting Los Angeles from his native Great Britain for VidCon, an online video conference.

McSwiggan, who has a fairly modest following of 64,000 subscribers on Youtube, claims that as he left the gay nightclub, The Abbey, in West Hollywood, he became separated from his friends and was beaten by three men. It was apparently during this attack, according to McSwiggan, that the car mirror and bumper of his assailants' vehicle became damaged.

​"The authorities should have been there to help and protect me," McSwiggan wrote the next morning on Instagram, accompanied by a photo of himself in the hospital. "But instead they treated me like a second class citizen...I've never felt so terrified to be a gay man in the public eye." McSwiggan alleged he suffered broken teeth and needed stitches after this attack.

​The police say that they arrested McSwiggan after he vandalized the car and, while in the police station, he began injuring himself with a station payphone.

He was then taken to a hospital.

​Although this sounds unlikely, McSwiggan admitted later on Facebook that he had himself caused the injury that required six stitches on his forehead.

​The district attorney's office believes McSwiggan damaged the car and then claimed the car owner and two other men beat him up. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's department was "unable to substantiate" any assault to McSwiggan other than that he inflicted on himself.

​"Being accused of being a liar and being called a disgrace to the LGBT+ community, a community I've dedicated my life to, is more painful than any hate crime could ever be," McSwiggan wrote on Facebook.

​If convicted as charged, McSwiggan could be facing a sentence of up to three-and-a-half years in county jail.