After sharing his testimony concerning the “in depth” sexual abuse he survived as a teen from convicted little one molester Brian Peck, Drake Bell is now calling out different Hollywood figures for supporting his abuser.
The Drake & Josh star referred to as out Boy Meets World actors Rider Sturdy and Will Friedle for writing letters of assist for Peck when the Nickelodeon dialogue coach was awaiting sentencing for sexually assaulting Bell when he was 15. “RIDER WAS 24 years previous when he wrote the letter and was advised by Brian what he did. He wrote the letter anyway,” Bell wrote in a remark Friday on Zoey 101 star Alexa Nikolas’ Instagram publish.
Bell made an identical assertion about Friedle in a since-deleted touch upon the identical publish (of which Nikola shared a screenshot), and stated that the actor continued working with him on Disney XD’s Final Spider-Man within the 2010s. “Will was 27 years previous and Brian advised him what he did,” Bell wrote. “Many individuals turned away and stated no I gained’t write a letter however they did. Will was not manipulated. Brian admitted it to him and he wrote the letter anyway. Then he labored with me on many many episodes of spider man years later and by no means stated a phrase to me about it.”
Drake Bell.
Christopher Polk/Getty Photographs
Friedle and Sturdy addressed their relationship with Peck in an episode of their podcast Pod Meets World in February. “My intuition initially was, ‘My pal, this may’t be. It’s gotta be the opposite particular person’s fault,'” Friedle stated. “The story makes full sense the best way that he’s saying it.”
“He didn’t say that nothing had occurred,” Sturdy defined. “So by the point we heard about this case and knew something about it, it was at all times within the context of, ‘I did this factor, I’m responsible. I’m going to take no matter punishment the federal government determines, however I’m a sufferer of jailbait. There was this sizzling man, I simply did this factor and he’s underage.’ And we purchased that storyline. I by no means heard concerning the different issues as a result of, again then, you couldn’t Google to search out out what folks had been being charged with.”
Bell speculated that the actors recorded that podcast as a result of they knew the Investigation Discovery docuseries Quiet on Set: The Darkish Facet of Youngsters TV was about to show their assist for Peck by way of not too long ago unsealed courtroom paperwork. “It is because they had been advised [their] letters are going to be made public,” Bell wrote in his Instagram remark. “Everybody thought the letters could be sealed without end and nobody would ever see them. That is their publicist telling them methods to get forward of the story.”
Reps for Friedle, Sturdy, and Bell didn’t instantly reply to EW’s request for remark.
Will Friedle and Rider Sturdy.
David Livingston/FilmMagic
Friedle expressed his later remorse within the podcast. “There’s an precise sufferer right here, and he turned us in opposition to the sufferer to the place now we’re on his workforce,” he stated. “That’s the factor the place, to me, I look again at that as my ever-loving disgrace for this complete [thing]. Getting taken in by someone who’s a superb actor and a manipulator, I might chalk that as much as being younger and that’s the best way it’s. It’s terrible. I’m going to make use of that for my development as a human being, however when there’s an precise sufferer concerned and now I’m on the abuser’s facet, that’s the factor I can’t recover from and haven’t been in a position to recover from.”
Quiet on Set revealed that different celebrities, together with James Marsden, Taran Killam, and Rising Pains stars Alan Thicke and Joanna Kerns additionally wrote letters of assist for Peck through the trial. Solely Kerns offered a follow-up assertion that was included within the documentary: “I’ve now discovered that my letter of assist was based mostly on full misinformation. Figuring out what I do know now, I by no means would have written the letter.”
When you or somebody you realize has been a sufferer of sexual abuse, textual content “STRENGTH” to the Disaster Textual content Line at 741-741 to be related to a licensed disaster counselor.
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