7-Foot Teenager Dressed as Slender Man Kicked Out of Sydney Comic Con




updated 09/24/2014 AT 04:45 PM EDT


originally published 09/24/2014 AT 03:20 PM EDT



Daniel Simao, a 17-year-old high school graduate from Sydney, Australia, touched a nerve at Sydney's recent Comic Con when he dressed as Internet horror icon Slender Man and made his way through the event scaring people.

Slender Man's role as the "inspiration" behind the attempted murder of a 12-year-old in Wisconsin was largely a Stateside incident (as was another incident where a Florida girl was "influenced" by the character to set fire to her home), which may explain why Simao didn't think much of his costume.


He ran into trouble, however, when he wandered around the convention hall "poking people softly, placing my hand on people's shoulder but taking it off immediately, and the occasional touching of the hair," as he told VICE.


Security guards were alerted to his presence, and eventually, after an apparently-unheeded warning to "stop touching people and invading their personal space," Simao was escorted from the building.


Event Director of Oz Comic Con, Bernadette Neumann, confirmed to VICE that an attendee dressed as Slender Man was the source of several complaints and was asked to leave the convention. "While management did not witness every single incident, the fact a number of complaints were made indicated there was an issue which needed to be addressed straight away," she said.


Costume-enthusiast site Beyond CosPlay has several pictures of Simao in costume that show him posing with other attendees, though it's hard to tell the context from still images.


Multiple costume retailers are selling the Slender Man costume in time for Halloween, a move that that's provoked Waukesha, Wisconsin, residents still unnerved by the attack. One retailer, Party City, has removed the item from its shelves in Waukesha, though the item is still available on the company's web site.






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