CALIFORNIA—A California man was charged on Tuesday, April 21 with allegedly making violent threats against several teenage girls.
Carl Bennington, 33, was charged in federal court in Los Angeles with a single count of cyberstalking. He faces a maximum prison sentence of five years and did not enter a plea while in court. Bennington promotes “incel ideology” and is known to have expressed sympathy for Santa Barbara mass shooter Elliot Rodger. “Incel ideology” is defined as involuntary celibate members of an online subculture who define themselves as unable to find a romantic or sexual partner despite desiring one.
He will be in federal custody until his next scheduled court appearance on Thursday, April 23. Federal prosecutors allege that for the last four years, Bennington has used multiple social media accounts to send hundreds of repeated, unsolicited and graphic messages to his victims, including a Texas woman, 22, who told authorities she began receiving random messages from the defendant at the age of 14. In 2019, he was placed on two 72-hour mental health hold as a risk to others by the Covina Police Department.
Bennington has also posted several Facebook messages about Rodger between 2015 and 2019. In those messages, he calls Rodger a victim after reading his writings. Rodger expressed hatred for women in his writings and is known to be idolized by those who consider themselves “incel.” Rodger killed 6 people and injured 14 others during a 2014 attack at the UC Santa Barbara campus.
