The past 12 months have seen some torrid times for YouTube’s once rising stars The Ingham Family. Chris Ingham shot to infamy when he was accused and subsequently proven to have sent sexually inappropriate messages to fans as young as 16 and cheated on his celebrity wife Sarah with another.
YouTube thought they’d seen the worst of The Inghams at that point. However, fast forward 12 months and, with the benefit of hindsight, we can see just how nasty and vindictive both Chris and Sarah Ingham have become.
The Ingham Family have a long-standing business relationship with the ‘Undisputed Queen Of Dolls’ Mary Shortle. Most recently, both have hit the headlines for making a replica doll of their newborn baby Jace; selling him for up to £350. Mary Shortle’s shop in Leeds, run by Victoria Shortle has come under fire most recently for conducting a witch-hunt for a 13 year old child. In August 2019, Shortle posted a series of CCTV images of three people who visited her shop and asked her army of ‘dolly fans’ to share the post and pass on names of the people involved. Thousands shared the images, which included a 13 year old boy. Shortle was made aware of this, but still refused to remove the images. Aside from the morally corrupt nature of this action, sharing CCTV images in this way also happens to be illegal. Still she refused to remove the images. Shortle does not appear to be registered as a Data Controller, which is also illegal. Still she refused to remove the images. Shortle has been contacted every step of the way and still she refuses to remove the images.
The Ingham Family, with their close relationship with Shortle, shared the CCTV images further on their own Facebook page, urging their army of minionated fans to contact them with the names of those three people – including the 13 year old child.
Chris Ingham posted a menacing response to the child, quoting the words from the ‘Bad Boys’ movie. The Ingham Family, who’s very existence relies solely on support from children, were behaving in an horrendous manner to this innocent child. Some might call it bullying.
Neither The Inghams nor Shortle have reached out to these people to offer an apology. In fact, they would rather continue the abuse.
The Inghams have long been saying there is an open harassment case ongoing. However, very recently, in a Chris Ingham Instagram video he embedded a threat to the YouTuber Dougal. This threat was broadcast to thousands of young fans.
A while ago, Ingham was seen actively taunting the campaign group The real Inghams on Instagram. Both of these acts would nullify any ongoing harassment case.
Of late, The Inghams have been caught out doing even more heinous things during their vlogs, such as leaving their five month old baby alone on a beach in Spain whilst the entire family were frolicking in the sea. Despite their protests to the contrary it appears highly unlikely they would have saved him should the worst have happened. Viewers of The Ingham Family have long been used to them putting other people’s children at risk – such as filming a naked child and forgetting to blur them out – but this was a new level entirely; putting their own tiny defenseless baby at risk.
Then there were THOSE allegations….
The month was June 2018 and one of YouTube’s most popular family vlogging channels were riding high. The Ingham Family had just hit one million subscribers and the fame and fortune was peaking.
Skip forward just weeks to July 2018 and it all came crashing down in the most incredible fashion imaginable. Family man Chris Ingham was alleged to have sent sexually inappropriate messages to his young, impressionable and vulnerable fans. The most notorious of these was to 16 year old Jessica Simpson who was staying in the same hotel in Disneyland Florida during an October 2017 holiday. Unbeknownst to Ms Simpson and his large fanbase, Ingham had already slept with 21 year old fan Hayley Burt under the guise of a skating ‘experience’. Having had sex with Ms Burt, Ingham forced her to sign a non-disclosure agreement worth £250,000, thus ensuring she didn’t tell anyone of his exploits.
Once Ms Simpson’s initial allegations came out, subsequent girls came forward with their own version of interactions with Ingham. 19 year old Bella Fearn reported how Ingham sent inappropriate messages to her after they met at Alton Towers. Chloe Ward was also 19 when she was groomed by Ingham when she was at her most vulnerable.
Subsequent unverified reports have come from further girls.
Life for The Ingham Family went from basking in the limelight to hiding in their unsold shabby hoodies. Wonderful happy holidays were now fugitive-esq hiding out in out of season deserted destinations.
Contrary to many media reports, Ingham has never denied these allegations. In August 2018 he made a 22 minute long video, filmed in what looked like the basement of his Australia holiday apartment. Within this video he used very succinct words and phrases which were intentionally vague. ‘Am I a paedophile?’, ‘Am I a groomer?’. He is not a paedophile as his victims were all overage and he is not legally a groomer for the same reason. In 22 minutes, not once did he address the actual allegations or acknowledge the girls who came forward. Not once.