Daniel Morris

Daniel Morris
In the New Westphalian City of Kandieden
Personal details
Born	21 October 1993 (1993-10-21) Birkenhead, Great Britain
Nicknames	Danny Morris, Dan Morris, Dan Wylde, Danos, Danmoz93

Daniel Morris (born 21 October 1993), also known as Dan Wylde and Danmoz93, is a disgraced former micronationalist who was forced out of the community after numerous allegations of sexual harassment and online predation of minors surfaced in March 2020, following previous accusations from 2012.

Micronationally, he served as the founder and leader of New Westphalia and its predecessor states.

Abuse allegations

2012

In May 2012, in the lead-up to PoliNation 2012, a then 15-year old micronationalist reported Morris to the organisers of the event and to the administrators of MicroWiki, claiming that Morris had been frequently messaging him with requests to have sex with him at the summit. In the fallout of this allegation, several other micronationalists - one as young as 12 - came forward with accusations that Morris had been soliciting indecent and explicit screenshots from them and otherwise sexually harassing them online for a period of several months. The British police were informed of the allegations, together with evidence in the form of logs and screenshots. Morris was forbidden from attending PoliNation by its organisers George Cruickshank and Alexander Reinhardt, and banned from MicroWiki and MicroWikia.

Morris reacted to his ban by threatening to track down and attack the then siteowner Petya d’Égtavie and to commit suicide if she did not lift his ban, while simultaneously attempting to gain pity from other micronationalists with a series of contradictory claims regarding the alleged deterioration of his personal life. For example, he claimed to have been hospitalised for a heart attack caused by the grief of seeing PoliNation go on without him, and also claimed that he had been expelled from college as a result of a police investigation into the allegations (two claims he later denied ever making).

Return to community

Throughout 2012 and early 2013, Morris retained a foothold in the community due to his involvement with the Antarctic Micronational Union (AMU), the then-leaders of which argued that to restrict his access to children over safeguarding concerns would be a violation of his right to a presumption of innocence.

Morris claimed that police officers had removed him from college and investigated the claims against him before deciding not to press charges and instead referring him to psychological and medical treatment for a hormonal sexual disorder. He claimed that his completion of this program and the decision not to press charges meant that he was not a threat, and argued that people continuing to distance themselves from him were acting on personal grudges. As the scandal gradually became a thing of the past and no new allegations surfaced, Morris began to tentatively rejoin the main community via his position in the AMU. Morris invited himself to the 2013 Intermicronational Summit, which caused several micronationalists to refuse to attend once he had announced he would be there, but the summit's organisers were pressured into allowing him to go by the growing number of community members who now believed his version of events. His presence at the summit, and the lack of any resultant incidents, were seen as vindication by his supporters, and reassured many that the actions he had been accused of - the scandal now having broken well over a year ago - were a thing of the past and that he had genuinely reformed. By early 2014 he had been permitted to create a new account on MicroWiki.

Late 2016 to mid-2018 saw many micronationalists aware of the 2012 scandal go inactive, and late 2018 saw several new nations join the community. This meant that by 2019 most active members of the community were unaware of Morris’ history. Those that were had seen seven years go by with no repeat accusations, and so most came to accept that Morris had matured from the events of 2012, which were viewed as per his claims as a shameful time in his past as an over-hormonal teenager that he had genuinely reformed from with professional psychological help.

2020

In April 2020, a 16-year old micronationalist raised concerns regarding Daniel Morris to the staff of the Grand Unified Micronational, accusing Morris - ten years his senior - of showing a markedly increased interest in him after learning he was gay, sending him sexually suggestive messages and attempting to persuade him to meet him. Older members of the community reacted with concern at this allegation given Morris’ history, and the events of 2012 became common knowledge.

Morris denied any wrongdoing, both in response to the new accusation but also regarding the 2012 scandal. He claimed that he had not harassed numerous minors in 2012, but attempted to claim that a single online relationship had ended badly and been taken out of context. He also contradicted his previous claims that he had been made to undergo hormonal treatment by the police, instead claiming that he had attended therapy voluntarily and that the police had no interest in his case. When the new accusations against him had first surfaced, some older members of the community had initially sided with Morris, believing that his history made it easy to jump to conclusions. However, his attempt to rewrite the events of 2012 made it clear that he could not be trusted to give an honest account of events and lost him any sympathy among those who had been present during the original scandal.

As knowledge of both the 2012 scandal and the newest allegations spread, several other micronationalists - most of whom were minors - came forward alleging that Morris had attempted to engage in conversations of a sexual nature with them and/or sent them unsolicited indecent pictures of himself. Evidence provided in support of some of these accusations was sent to the FBI due to the American nationality of one of the minors who accused him, but that specific minor decided against pressing charges, allegedly after being sent messages from Morris.

Upon the new accusations coming to light, Morris was banned from MicroWiki and the MicroWiki Discord, but by July 2020 he had joined the Commonwealth of Dracul. This nation operated primarily outside the MicroWiki sphere and its leadership was unaware of what had transpired within the community. They therefore only had Morris’ version of events, who claimed that he was the victim of a witch-hunt of unspecified motive by "GUM elites". In October 2020, the leadership of Dracul became aware of the actual accusations against Morris and after being provided with evidence invited him to defend himself against it. He chose instead to resign all micronational positions.

Micronationalism

Morris established the Dictatorship of Dorzhabad in January 2010, which transitioned from a dictatorship to a republic later in the year. In January 2012 it became the Union of Draegan Republics (UDR). Morris announced that the UDR had dissolved in June 2012 in the aftermath of the scandal of that year, claiming that all his friends and associates had left the project, but later contradicted himself in September that year by claiming the nation still functioned. He admitted in May 2013 that he was the sole remaining member. He went on to found the Republic of New Westphalia in August 2013, which collapsed in late 2020 after the second scandal which broke earlier that year.