Who is Sam Pepper? YouTuber who injured Delhi girl with firecracker has a long hory of controversy

British YouTuber Sam Pepper has acknowledged that he injured a young girl while shooting firecrackers during Diwali celebrations in New Delhi. The 36-year-old content creator was seen in a viral video engaging in a fireworks battle with a group of locals, standing several feet away and firing rockets at them. Sam Pepper was accused of shooting a firecracker that left a girl injured. One of the rockets reportedly struck an eight-year-old girl, leaving her injured. In footage shared online, locals can be seen confronting Pepper, informing him that the child had lost an eye. Pepper reacted in disbelief, exclaiming, “No it hasn’t!” and suggesting that the group might be exaggerating the extent of her injuries. Following the incident, Pepper was banned from Kick, the livestreaming platform where he was broadcasting, and also from Pump.fun, a crypto platform he was associated with. (Also read: British YouTuber Sam Pepper’s firecracker stunt injures Indian girl: ‘All costs were paid’) Pepper later responded on X (formerly Twitter), acknowledging that he had caused the injury but downplaying its seriousness. He claimed that he and his team had covered the girl’s medical expenses. The incident occurred on October 20, during Diwali celebrations in the Indian capital. Who is Sam Pepper?Sam Pepper, whose full name is Samuel Nicholas Pepper, is a 36-year-old British internet personality and former reality TV contestant. He was born on 26 March 1989 in Ashford, Kent, England, and is half Greek. Pepper attended Pent Valley Technology College in Cheriton, Kent, before entering the entertainment industry. He first rose to fame in 2010 as a contestant on the 11th season of Big Brother UK, where his outspoken and controversial behaviour earned him both attention and criticism. After being evicted from the show on Day 73, Pepper shifted his focus to YouTube, launching his channel in September 2010. Initially, he gained popularity for his extreme prank videos, which often featured shock humour and elaborate stunts. However, these videos soon attracted widespread backlash for crossing ethical boundaries. Over the years, Pepper has repeatedly reinvented himself—moving from pranks to vlogging, then comedy content on TikTok, and eventually livestreaming on Kick, where he built a new following. Despite multiple reinventions, his career has been repeatedly overshadowed allegations of sexual misconduct, staged pranks, and controversial online behaviour. “Fake Hand A** Pinch” controversyPepper first became a household name for the wrong reasons in 2014, after uploading a YouTube video titled “Fake Hand A** Pinch Prank”. In the video, he approached women on the street under the pretext of asking for directions, before pinching their bottoms with a hidden fake hand. The video quickly went viral, and not for its humour. The backlash was swift, with the hashtag #ReportSamPepper trending on social media and thousands calling for YouTube to ban his channel. In response, Pepper released another video where women pinched men’s buttocks, and later claimed the entire thing had been a “social experiment” to raise awareness about harassment. The explanation was widely condemned, and both videos were taken down soon after, BBC reported. Sexual assault allegationsShortly after the “prank” video’s release, multiple women accused Pepper of serious sexual misconduct, including inappropriate contact and soliciting nude photographs from a minor. While no charges were filed, the allegations intensified after a BuzzFeed News investigation published detailed account from a woman who accused Pepper of rape. In the BuzzFeed report, a 20-year-old woman from Toronto alleged that Pepper sexually assaulted her in a hotel room in 2013. She was 18 at the time of the assault. She claimed that she met Pepper after responding to a tweet and later went to his hotel room at the Westin Hotel. “There were two beds in the room, and I had no interest in lying next to him on a bed, so I sat on the other one and began to talk to him,” she told BuzzFeed. According to her account, Pepper then got on top of her and began pulling down her pants and lifting her shirt. “The most I could blurt out was, ‘Well, I can’t have sex with you. Please don’t have sex with me, I don’t do this kind of thing,’” she said. She alleged that Pepper then forced her to perform oral sex on him. “He continued to do things to me against my will and then forced me to give him head, nearly choking me,” she said. “Afterwards, he threw me a napkin and told me that it was time to go.” “Killing Best Friend” prankIn 2015, Pepper sparked renewed outrage with another controversial video titled “Killing Best Friend Prank.” The video showed him apparently kidnapping two YouTubers, Sam Golbach and Col Brock, before “shooting” one of them in front of the other. Although the participants later revealed the video was staged, viewers were outraged its realic depiction of violence and emotional dress. The “Save the Kids” crypto scandalIn 2021, Pepper became embroiled in the Save the Kids cryptocurrency controversy while working as an independent contractor with the esports group FaZe Clan. The project, promoted as a charity token, was later revealed to be a pump-and-dump scheme, according to a report in EsportsTalk. YouTube investigator Coffeezilla and former FaZe Clan member Frazier Khattri (FaZe Kay) accused Pepper of manipulating the token’s mechanics to allow early investors to profit before the price collapsed. Both men denied responsibility and instead pointed fingers at each other. Pepper claimed he was merely paid to help produce videos for FaZe and was “dragged into the drama.” Arrest in AustraliaIn 2023, Pepper was temporarily arrested in Queensland, Australia, after a livestream involving an escort sparked allegations of sexual misconduct. During the stream, Pepper and fellow streamer Ice Poseidon invited an escort to a hotel room while broadcasting the encounter live. When the woman realised she was being filmed, she tried to leave and was briefly blocked another streamer. Police later arrested Pepper and Ice Poseidon but released them without charges, NBC News reported.