Martin MacDonald | False Allegation | Defamation | Tattle | Sexual Harassment | Rape
An Open Letter
I’m writing this after much consideration and advice from friends and other industry ‘names’. I haven’t felt the need to ‘fight back’ or ‘clear my name’ as for anyone who knows me it is very clear what this situation is. Sadly, with enough hate and jealousy it feels like parties in the middle ground are being influenced and my silence isn’t helpful.
In November 2020 I found out an ex-intern/employee had accused me of raping her on July 14th 2019 at a Tour event. Sickening to even type those words. The police did their due diligence, interrogated me quite painstakingly, took my phone for forensic analysis to cross reference my story and to see all communications; a small price to pay for them having all the evidence showing it was an evil lie.
This individual and her ‘friends’ are now turning their energy towards trying to make out that there was not enough evidence to convict, even trying to suggest it went to court, when the truth is that there was zero evidence and multiple lines of evidence to show that this is a malicious false accusation.
Enough evidence in fact that now after a difficult initial stage I’m finally in the process of having the case heard to prosecute her for the false allegations/perverting the course of justice and also on grounds of harassment. I almost don’t have the energy for it because, much like the rest of the world, the police don’t really care about women who make these false allegations. She has cried rape twice before this, which partly makes me think I need to be the one who stands up for what is right and either have her imprisoned or given access to mental health support.
People have asked me why she did this. What did I do to wrong her? It’s kinda horrible to be asked. What could you possible do to deserve this? The only thing I can really say, although it doesn’t feel comfortable to write, is that she was obsessed with me. Constantly pursuing me over a period of 8 months, even whilst she had a boyfriend. She continued to work for me, rely on me for emotional support for various issues and volunteer/ask to come to events, Tour dates & optional staff retreats until February of 2020, and we continued to be friends (makes me feel sick now to write that she was a friend) until May 2020 when she became abusive when I unfollowed her on Instagram and didn’t respond to a request to do a podcast with her. She demanded I delete all communications I had ever had with her and then, unbeknown to me at the time, went to the police in June.
I will say, if you are reading this, and know me and want to see all the police files and the evidence I am using as part of the prosecution, I will show you. Thank God for encrypted Whatsapp conversations and the backup function. Please don’t be embarrassed to ask. It doesn’t show you don’t trust me. I can’t, sadly, publish it online until the police investigations have happened.
She is not the only reason for this letter, however. She was a catalyst for a small handful of jealous and hateful individuals to jump on the back of something extremely serious and, well… illegal. It doesn’t get much more heinous than rape let’s be honest. If you hate me, you’re jealous of me or you want to deflect attention away from yourself, nothing better than jumping on a rape accusation to carry along the agenda of what simply amounts to personal dislike, jealousy or trying to protect yourself.
A sub-contractor who we cut ties with for being aggressive towards Sarah and for repeated deviant behaviour jumped on the bandwagon. Individuals who we have removed from MNU for misconduct also jumped on the bandwagon. An ex-employee who is in a long-term relationship, who got drunk on a staff retreat and was caught on camera being ‘overly friendly’ towards me and then made advances towards me whilst drunk and high on drugs (who’s partner is very against drug use), has also decided to jump on it. Gaslighting at it’s best.
The crux of this letter is to respond to the cancel culture and to mainly provide clarity for those in the middle ground. Those who aren’t interested in gossip but would like to be informed with facts. As I’ve said, regarding the main accusation that is now done and dusted, I will show anyone who asks. The rest comes down to the rumour mill and character assassination by this handful of people who dislike me for whatever reason. A seemingly ongoing endeavour to try and create a certain image of me, using words like predator and ‘grooming’ when they DM my friends, customers, family etc to try and elicit these emotional responses we all have to those words.
The real situation, however, is very different.
As anyone who has ever attended one of my events will have observed.
Thousands of women have attended my events. Hundreds of women have been at after parties with me. And these people will tell a very different story of me. I’m not approaching people. I’m being approached.
[I have deleted a huge portion of this ‘open letter’ telling stories of women who have acted inappropriately towards me/others who I have seen quietly taking sides with this small group of individuals who want to bring my name into disrepute. I wrote it in anger/from a bad place. The ‘reason’ for including it was to show that perhaps these people feel safer doing so, in a sort of pre-emptive way in case I ever tell their boyfriends, husbands, colleagues etc about their actions. I get people make mistakes. I wouldn’t go out to ruin someone’s life because they made a mistake. Even now, I’m still choosing to be the bigger person & won’t be retaliating.]
I’ve already been accused of gaslighting. Yet I’ve sat back and said NOTHING for 10 MONTHS. No gaslighting. No nothing. While my name has been dragged through the mud. While fickle people have turned their back on me. While competitors of MNU have jumped on the bandwagon to fuel their interest in money. Funny how quiet they are when any discussion of evidence-based nutrition comes up but gossip doesn’t need evidence. Easy to do that one instead of seeking facts.
I have been subjected to as much cancel culture as someone like me can be.
When faceless, jealous, evil people get off on hurting others and trying to drag me and anyone closely related to me down in areas that have NO relevance to the ‘crime’ it’s a big issue. I was accused of rape. It was investigated. Rightly so. That individual has been cautioned by the police because she thought that gave her the right to harass me and try to ‘ruin’ me… continuing her lies post allegation into fake accounts of past events. See below the email she used to try to promote her new book – cross referenced with the actual WhatsApp conversation at the time.
Completely unnecessary lies being created, off the back of the frenzy she attempted to create with her false allegation and the social media campaign she undertook around it.
There is of course zero evidence of this fabricated rape. But the evidence against it spans from circumstantial to borderline conclusive. I’ll leave these two messages she sent me 1) 11 days after the henioius act is supposed to have happened and 2) 2-3 months after she left Mac-Nutrition and 1 month before she decided to go to the police; I show these as an example of some basic suggestive evidence that she was in fact the pursuer, not the victim of a horrible horrible crime and that this was a pre-meditated malicious lie she was about to make up.
Yet the “Believe all women” mantra that is repeated over and over by fitness industry figures who have no other way to stay relevant other than to bring social justice issues into their content and apply the same poor critical thinking skills to these issues as they do to their fitness and nutrition content. Feelings over evidence.
One of the most disgusting things about this situation is that false allegations like this hugely diminish the struggles of real victims. Not only that, they add to the lacklustre way in which some allegations are treated because the allegations can be made with so few consequences. Taking a ‘stand’ with a women without asking for evidence is why ‘outsiders’ don’t value the cause. There is often no evidence, but it is the lack of asking for evidence AND evidence against it that the fanatics do not do, that undermines things so badly.
At present, I will not name this individual. I won’t be trying to cancel her. Partly, because it’s wrong. But also partly because I’m genuinely worried that she might commit suicide based on my knowledge of her previous mental health issues. I don’t want her to be subjected to ‘internet hate’. I just want justice. The police investigation will no doubt be stressful so if you know her and you’re not just a fickle person wanting to be part of this drama… reach out to her. Sadly, what she has done goes far beyond gossip. It even goes beyond slandering my name, beyond the harassment of trying to damage my personal life, mental health and career… A false accusation is a criminal offence with the minimum judgment of a custodial sentence.
I can’t however, stand by and do nothing.
I will let the police do their job in sorting through all the clear evidence this is a perversion of the course of justice. Fuelled by feelings of rejection/inadequacy which I must say, I never intended to cause. In fact, my actions most certainly would be seen as the complete opposite.
If you’ve read this far. I do hope I’ll be able to see you in person and show you the evidence.
I’m also just opening myself up for anyone reading this to actually just reach out to me if this whole situation has made you feel ‘yuck’ about the industry. I’m a person. I have feelings. I haven’t taken any of this lightly. Seeing the fickle people fall away has hurt a lot. Seeing those I thought a lot better of take sides without even reaching out to me to either scorn me because they fully believe it or, more appropriately, ask for my side of the story.
I’ll leave this here.
It’s easy to jump on the cancel culture bandwagon to throw hate.
However, those who have said anything against these rumours about me have had comments deleted across the internet. It leaves a very toxic trail with uniformed voices and opinions.
Likewise, it’s easier to be a coward and distance from the situation, or ignore the situation, than stand up for what is right. Again, leaving the only voices as hateful ones.
I hope for those of you who have been conflicted over things you’ve heard have a little more peace of mind and likewise, feel you can reach out to me if you need to.
For those of you who HAVE found out the facts. Who HAVE stood by me and continue to do so. Thank you.
Update: After a very long drawn out process of being palmed off (I was told this would happen by prosecution solicitors that I consulted) they are finally taking it seriously and investigating her.
