Clavicular rape accusations dropped in civil case amid criminal proceedings

A woman who accused “lookmaxxing” influencer Clavicular of rape has dropped the sexual assault claim in her civil lawsuit against the 20-year-old and refiled her case, a move her lawyer says is meant to circumvent a pending criminal case involving the alleged encounter, according to U.S. media reports.

Clavicular, whose real name is Braden Peters, was charged in a criminal case in Massachusetts last month with one count of rape, one count of drugging someone for sexual intercourse and one count of procuring alcohol for someone under the age of 21.

2:03 ‘Looksmaxxing’ concerns grow after influencer Clavicular’s suspected overdose, hospitalization

The charges were filed on Sept. 8 and pertain to an alleged incident involving the woman in the civil case on May 23, 2025, at Peter’s family home in Cape Cod, Mass.

Story continues below advertisement

According to a report filed with Chatham police and obtained by Global News, the woman said she took a rideshare from her grandparents’ home in the Cape Cod area to Peter’s family home in an affluent gated community overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, after Peters invited her to appear in one of his livestreams.

She told police she was greeted by his mother and grandmother before being escorted by Peters to his room, where he was livestreaming on Twitch.

The accuser told Chatham police that she and Peters were messaging on Instagram for about a week beforehand and that he paid her to appear in “looksmaxxing” videos he streamed online. She said in the filings that Peters knew she was 17 at the time of the alleged assault but that he told her to tell his viewers that she was 18 and that vodka he gave her was water, according to the police report.

She said she drank what she estimated was two or three shots of vodka and became increasingly intoxicated. An officer who reviewed clips from Peters’ livestream said one showed the girl telling Peters, “Wait, I’m so drunk though.” Peters responded, “It’s OK,” and then they kissed, according to the police report.

Story continues below advertisement

After the livestream ended, she told police they had sex in his room and that she fell asleep in his bed. The next morning she awoke to Peters on top of her, “having sex with me.” She advised police that it was non-consensual and that she was “in shock” when she woke up.

Get daily National news

Get daily Canada news delivered to your inbox so you'll never miss the day's top stories.

Peters’ lawyers have denied the allegations, saying in a July court filing that the encounter was consensual, the Associated Press reported.

The alleged assault was described in her original civil lawsuit filed which was filed in Florida in April. An amended complaint filed in June accused Peters of sexual battery over the Cape Cod encounter and of injecting the girl with a fat-dissolving substance during a livestream without consent; the injection allegations remain active in the newly filed civil case, according to the Associated Press and NBC News.

Peters has gained popularity amongst young male viewers for his “looksmaxxing” videos and livestreams and is known for using extreme tactics to try to enhance his appearance, like hitting himself in the face with a hammer in an attempt to make his bones grow back sharper and has publicly spoken about using meth to curb his appetite to help him manage weight.

The term ‘looksmaxxing’ was coined by online incel and manosphere sub-cultures in the 2010s.

It espouses the idea that women choose men based primarily on physical attributes such as facial attractiveness and height and ranges from “softmaxxing,” which includes grooming, fitness and skincare, to “hardmaxxing,” which includes extreme procedures such as “bone-smashing” to alter facial bone structure and cosmetic surgery.

Story continues below advertisement

In a profile for the New York Times, Peters, who revealed he makes more than US$100,000 a month from the streaming platform Kick, said he started taking testosterone shortly before his 15th birthday. He also began to order steroids, fat dissolvers and biodegradable sutures soon after that.

In April last year, he was hospitalized after suffering a suspected overdose while live streaming in a Miami mall with fellow streamer Androgenic.

A month earlier, Peters was arrested on a battery charge, stemming from an incident that took place in February outside of Orlando.

In May, Peters pleaded no contest to misdemeanour charges of unlawfully discharging a firearm in a Florida incident involving a viral video that appeared to show him and content creator Andrew Morales, known as “Cuban Tarzan,” shooting at an alligator in the Everglades.

Last year, Peters made headlines when he walked out of a 60 Minutes interview after Adam Hegarty asked him if he identifies as an incel.

“I mean, how could you ask me that question as a follow-up after you asked me about my relationships to women?” he replied. “I mean, that’s quite literally the worst sequence of questions I think I’ve ever heard.”