11 November 2023 , 20:01
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A British YouTuber with more than 4.2 million subscribers is facing extradition over allegations of sex attacks on underage girls in Poland.
Stuart Kluz-Burton – known to his followers as Stuu – has generated more than a billion online hits with his lifestyle and comedy videos. He was arrested in the UK last month after prosecutors in Poland accused him of sex offences against teenagers.
The Crown Prosecution Service confirmed the 31-year-old faces one charge of sexual touching in 2015 and three more relating to three years later. In the more recent alleged attack, he is accused of supplying alcohol to one of his alleged child victims. The alleged offences are reported to have taken place in Poland while the London-born video host – who has a Polish passport as well as a British one – lived there.
Kluz-Burton, who now lives in Luton, Beds, has run his hugely successful YouTube channel for a decade. One of his top clips, a glitzy music video called Best Life, sees him perform alongside glamorous female backing dancers. Another, featuring characters from Minecraft – a game popular with youngsters – has more than 17 million views.
Stuart Kluz-Burton is known to his followers as Stuu (Instagram/stuuburton)Experts say a user-base the size of his could earn £500,000-a-year from advertising, sponsorship and other benefits. His success in the UK and Poland has attracted a legion of mainly teenage fans, reportedly raking in millions of pounds. The charges against him came after Polish filmmaker Sylwester Wardega released a video accusing Kluz-Burton and other YouTubers of having sexual relationships with underage girls.
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It rocked the country’s YouTube community and led to government ministers intervening. Polish police contacted our National Crime Agency after reported searches of properties in capital Warsaw and the city of Szczecin, and the seizure of laptops and phones.
Announcing the charges, Poland’s Deputy Justice Minister, Piotr Cieplucha, said witnesses talked of “the huge scale of horrific sexual abuse of minors in the You-Tubers community”. He added: “It is only a matter of time before the perpetrators are brought to justice.”
Westminster magistrates remanded Kluz-Burton on conditional bail last month. He is currently on an electronic tag and has to sleep at his home in Luton every night. Bedfordshire police have also retained his British and Polish passports.
Kluz-Burton is due at a full extradition hearing in February. When contacted about the allegations, he refused to comment.