The site Sasha is referring to is a popular gossip site where official documents pertaining to celebrities are released anonymously. Celebrity riders, police reports and the like. There is, however, no way of verifying these documents are genuine.
—The statement from the air stewardess? The one who served Julius and his girlfriend and described them as ‘insufferable drunkards’? She says Julius left his phone in the toilet and that they left a GoPro on their seats. She says she had to catch them up to give it to them as they staggered into the airport.
Staunch professionals, both of them, no? That looks to me like the behaviour of someone celebrating something, not out to catch a potential paedophile.
I have to say, I’ve heard rumours surrounding Ian Julius’s credibility too. This, however, seems damning. Sasha hasn’t finished.
—OK, so let’s say that, even though they were drunk, and even though they were con artists, they still thought they’d genuinely caught a paedophile. Let’s say all that’s true. Who did they tell first? Was it the police? No. They tried to instigate a bidding war with the tabloids, for fuck’s sake!
All of this points to one thing; the one thing that Ian Julius cares about. Money. Money was what killed Zach. Greed.
—You’re blaming Ian Julius for Zach Crystal’s death?
—I truly, honestly believe that the responsibility for Zach’s death lies with the mainstream media and people like Ian Julius. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that Ian Julius bears almost sole responsibility. This was not how it was supposed to end.
—That may be so. However, Ian Julius’s life has also changed quite dramatically since he made these accusations against Zach Crystal. He has his life threatened on a daily basis by fans; he’s constantly on the move, terrified of being doxxed or swatted. Would it be rude of me to think you take some kind of pleasure in this?
—I mean the guy is crazy; he’s delusional. He belongs in an institution somewhere if he actually believes what he thinks about Zach. I don’t take pleasure in what’s happened to him, exactly, but I like to see justice being done. People call me crazy, but I’m just a fan. Ian Julius went out of his way to try and besmirch someone famous, someone vulnerable and giving. Zach was the one that caught him. He should have been put away for murder. He deserves all of it.
Like her idol, and like her nemesis, Sasha Stewart is herself a maligned figure. She caused huge controversy when she trawled the internet to find photographs of five women who have recently accused Zach Crystal of sexual assault in 2010 and 2011, and then showed them on her YouTube channel. Sasha also claims to be aware of the existence of a sex tape made by one of Crystal’s accusers. It’s a chilling and ruthless character assassination that Sasha believes is perfectly justified.
—It’s OK for those bitches to try and cancel Zach after he died, but if they get called out, it’s ‘victim-blaming’ – give me a fucking break.
Sasha has already stipulated that she’s not going to tell me where and how she found these pictures, so there’s no point me asking.
There’s no point me arguing with Sasha either; neither one of us can know with one-hundred-percent certainty whether Zach Crystal is guilty or innocent. The only person who does is dead. That’s not to say that those who have accused Crystal are lying, but there’s no concrete way for us to know the truth. I wish there was. What I want to do with Sasha is find out why she’s so vociferous in defence of the man, despite only knowing as much about the facts of the case as anyone else.
I want to start from the start.
—Sasha, when did Zach Crystal come into your life and change it?
—That’s a great question, Scott. Actually, I was fairly late to Zach’s music. I have to say, I didn’t really know who he was when I first met him. I was fairly disappointed to be honest. I was expecting Leona Lewis!
Sasha Stewart was twelve years old in 2007 and was an inpatient at Raigmore Hospital in Inverness. She had been ‘stepped down’ from the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) after being monitored for a head injury, and had her own room on the paediatric ward as she recovered from severe burns. Sasha still bears the scar from the head trauma; a pale, ragged line over her left eyebrow.
—Aye, so I didn’t have the greatest of upbringings. My ma and da were a pair of junkies from The Ferry. One day when I was twelve, they were cooking meth in the kitchen, and stupid me goes skidding over on some shite on the floor, pulling the boiling pan over myself and smashing my head on the worktop. I don’t remember much, but I imagine the pair of them were probably more concerned with how much of the stuff I’d lost them than the third-degree burns all over me or the blood pouring out of my skull.
‘The Ferry’ is a local term for the South Kessock area of Inverness, a deprived housing estate that is accessible to Inverness city centre via the ominous sounding ‘Black Bridge’.
So I’m staying on the children’s ward. It’s decent; you get your own room, with a telly and a foldaway bed that your ma and da could stay on overnight. I think mine visited me once or twice, for an hour, maybe? I think I had the dressings changed on my burns more times than I saw that pair of roasters, if I’m honest.
—That’s awful, I’m so sorry it happened to you.
—Ah, the past’s the past. I’m over it now. The way I look at it now, it was a blessing in disguise, really.
—Because it was how you met Zach Crystal?
—Aye. You got a lot of the footballers coming into the children’s ward, see? It’s a closed ward with its own entrance and exit. The footballers and celebrities come there so those poor, pampered bairns don’t have to see little infants full of tubes up in PICU, bless their little cotton socks.
I knew as much as I know about football then as I do now: fuck all. So when they said there was a ‘very special guest’ coming in to see us, I hoped it was someone decent. The nurses got all gooey and breathless, so I was thinking this couldn’t be Cally Thistle’s b-team goalkeeper this time. There was this mad tension in the air; everyone was scurrying round, talking too quick. I just had to lie there. Most exciting thing that was going on for me was getting my dressings changed.
Then in he comes. Through my door, with one of the nurses. Just like that. He’s got his security with him and his aides. They all stand around the door as he comes towards me. He looks right in my eyes. Right, deep into my eyes, and he smiled. And … it was … The effect it had on me, just in that moment … Look, I get a lot of hate from cowardly people online when I say this but I don’t give a fuck. He helped me. From that moment he helped heal me. Just by being there, just his presence. He had a magic about him. A subtle magic that not many people know about. You really had to spend time with him to feel it.
—And you did, didn’t you? You spent time with Zach Crystal?
—It was like … we just had a connection from the first moment we met each other. There’s something about him – he just understands young people. I think it was because he didn’t get to be a teenager, you know? He was always on tour or practising his keyboard and singing. That’s how he became the best, but he missed out on a lot of his life.
—Tell me more about this connection the two of you had.
—It’s hard to explain it. He just … we just got on. He came, under his own steam. He didn’t bring the press with him, nothing like that. He came to visit the children’s ward of his own volition, just to try and help, to give something back. That’s what people don’t see; that’s what the media don’t understand. They’re salty as fuck because he wouldn’t tell them when he did stuff like that. He wouldn’t do interviews with them, but he hung out with sick kids. If he had there would have been a circus.
Sasha’s right. Zach Crystal’s second and most successful album, Damage, came out in 2007 and confirmed Crystal as one of the world’s biggest pop superstars. Yet he visited children in hospitals and secure units. There was never any rhyme or reason to when he would do this, no forewarning, and he often disguised himself behind la
rge sunglasses and hats, arriving in normal-looking cars or taxis. He did it in the various countries his tours took him to, and he often visited the local hospitals near his home in Colliecrith National Park. By the end of his visits, crowds of media and fans would fill the car parks and his security team would have to hustle Crystal out into a waiting limo.
—Imagine, I didn’t really know who he was. It took a few minutes of him talking to me until I realised. I remember a nurse stood there, staring at him like a lost puppy, like she couldn’t bear that he was talking to me and I didn’t know who the guy was.
Crystal told Sasha he would return later that night, when there would only be ward staff on duty. He was good to his word and returned, dressed in disguise, wearing a baseball cap, tracksuit and sunglasses. Sasha explained that she and Zach Crystal talked late into the night, him sitting on the end of her bed. He returned a few times a week after that. Sasha tells me the ward was short staffed as a stomach bug was going around, so there were only two nurses on duty. No one noticed Crystal coming in and out of Sasha’s room.
—Folk don’t believe it happened. Like I say, I wasn’t sure who he was really at first and he found that funny. He gave me a present that first night – an iPod classic, filled with his music. He told me not to tell anyone else. I’ve still got it. His visits were the things I looked forward to more than anything. When he was there, I never thought about my burns. They didn’t hurt as much. I swear I healed quicker – and that’s what the nurses said too. They called the consultant in and he couldn’t believe it.
Crystal’s visits to kids like Sasha would last hours. He focused in particular on the ones with the most troubled back stories, often young girls in their pre- or early teens who were orphaned or vulnerable. Afterwards, they always said they felt better. They all reported an instant rapport; it felt to them that Crystal understood them, despite being more than twice their age.
—What did you two talk about? How did you both connect so easily?
—It’s hard to explain really. He just knew how to talk to me. He didn’t ask stupid questions about school, you know? He wasn’t patronising.
—Am I right in thinking you were actually invited to spend time in Crystal Forest?
—As soon as I was better, yes. It was all kept quiet. It was all very low key, not like now, when people can’t give to a fucking charity without taking a photo of themselves doing it.
—What about your mother and father?
—He helped them too, or he tried. He paid for them to go to rehab. I tried to tell him those two were a lost cause, but he didn’t give up. He didn’t give up on people, Zach Crystal. When social services couldn’t be bothered to attend meetings – no, sorry, I mean when the fucking government didn’t fund social services properly to help people like me, Zach Crystal did. But he didn’t make a show out of it. If anything, he kept it to himself. That’s how you know he really cared.
—So the three of you stayed in Crystal Forest? That’s amazing. There are millions across the world who would give anything to do that. I must say though, Sasha, you’ve been fairly tight-lipped about your experiences. I’m sure there are newspapers who would pay ridiculous money for an exclusive with you.
—Aye, I’m sure they would. I’m sure they’d pay me and then twist my words into a condemnation of Zach. I’m not having that, I’m just not. I’ve talked about it a bit on Crystal-Cast, and I’ll tell you what’s already out there, but the press can go fuck themselves, basically. I’m not about money.
Sasha’s position has always been consistent. Like many Zach Crystal fans, she believes the mainstream media have, and always have had, an agenda against her idol. Sasha’s been even more guarded since Crystal’s death, save to point out what she calls ‘the truth’ about Crystal’s accusers. So it feels like I have a world exclusive when Sasha decides it’s time to reveal a little more about her stay at her idol’s home.
—Crystal Forest was amazing. It was a magical place. Everything you’ve heard about it was true. You had to drive for miles along winding roads, through the Highlands. When you saw the forest, it just blew you away; just this huge expanse of yellow aspen. There were little clusters of pine and fir, so it looks dappled, like sunlight or something. It was a ray of sunlight through the mountains.
—Crystal Forest was notoriously hard to find though, wasn’t it?
—You had to drive there in a big fuck-off jeep if you wanted to find it. There was security all over, too. Cameras, fences, guards. But you could only see the fences if you know where to look. It was like an army base or something.
—Why do you think that was?
—The driver told us that there were motion sensors all over, because of the fans. There were guard posts every few miles, all because people were constantly trying to get in.
—Even in such a remote place?
—That’s what he said. They were always sending folk home.
—There were two Zach Crystal fans who found their way into Crystal Forest but never came out, weren’t there? Lulu Copeland and Jessica Morton, in 2007. They never made it home.
—That’s right. They didn’t. And whose fault was that? Zach Crystal’s?
—Sasha, have you seen the video that was released online? The one supposedly from one of the girls’ phones.
—Yep.
—And what do you think?
At this point, a look of sincerity seems to come over Sasha; for a few seconds, her spines are withdrawn.
—Aye, it’s not nice is it? It’s not great. Those two were just fans; it wasn’t their fault. I don’t think it’s real, mind you, that video.
—Why do you say that?
—For me … well … it smacks of someone with an agenda. Like someone’s made it and put it out there for a reason.
—Why now?
—Again, Zach’s dead isn’t he? He can’t defend himself. Not that what happened to them has anything to do with him.
—What makes you think so?
—You see … up at Crystal Forest, Zach sometimes took a select few and went out into the forest with them.
—Really? Why?
—It’s … it’s hard to explain when you’re not there and … If I go on, my words’ll get twisted. It’s not worth it. It really isn’t.
Sasha will not go any further than this. Whatever reason it was that Zach Crystal and his teenage companions were walking in the forest, is unfortunately left to speculation. For now at least. I decide to go for a different angle.
—It looks to me in that video that there’s something strange happening in Crystal Forest, something ‘other’ – lights, like eyes…
—Look, I didn’t make it, I had nothing to do with it. So I don’t know, OK? I don’t have any answers. Can we move on? Please?
—Sure, sure. What was it like inside Crystal Forest, in the house, I mean?
—Like I say, magical. It was true luxury. We stayed in the guest suite in the main house. It was like something out of a fairy tale, all those black beams and stuff, and loads of ivy climbing all over it, loads of flowers and trees.
—And you stayed in the tree house?
—Yep.
—Just you, not your parents?
—Yep.
—With Zach Crystal?
—Yep.
—Can you help me understand your experiences in there?
Sasha is extremely guarded around this subject. She has repeatedly mentioned on her podcast that she stayed overnight with Crystal, in the tree house overlooking the mansion. She has maintained the innocence of the whole situation and is wary of anyone trying to say otherwise.
—It was like something out of Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings. The trees grew through it; it was like a living house, all made of wood, with fairy lights all over. It was the most beautiful place I’d ever been. You just forgot about everything in there, all your problems, like you were somewhere magical.
—What did you do in there? Just hang out?
—Yeah. W
e hung out. We just ate crisps, watched horror movies. Chatted. It was just … normal, just nice, you know. When you were with Zach, it was like hanging out with a friend.
—You were twelve, he was in his thirties…
—And what? That’s the thing – he didn’t seem like an adult. He just seemed young, innocent. We did a lot of giggling; it was just like hanging out with another young person. He didn’t see age like the mainstream press and society do – to him it didn’t matter, it was about people.
When you were with him, he just had time for you, nothing was a problem. You got what you wanted, food, drinks, whatever. That’s all there is to say about it. That’s all I’m going to tell you about it. I’m not hiding anything – that’s what it was. He talked with me. It was like therapy, I suppose, just long chats – me and him. It was good for me. I felt treated, I felt valued. It benefitted my mental health.
—Zach Crystal did all this with you personally? Not through his people?
—He helped us. As much as he could. He tried with my ma and da, but he helped me. It helped me so much. Look where I am now. I’ve my own place, I’m healthy, I’m not a junkie. That ‘therapy’, if you want to call it that, helped me uncover so much about my past, stuff that I’d buried and repressed.
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