Immediately following DeCastro’s broadcasts, at least one of his more ardent supporters went into Welsh News Network’s scheduled chat claiming to be using the “dark web” and was seeking to gain host Welsh News Network’s IP address. That particular supporter hung around the room for hours, interacting with members there and being talked off the proverbial ledge by YouTube personality Mark the Sarcastic Law Student.
Mark explained that Welsh’s channel was not actively attacking the family of Jacqueline “Laney” Hudson and encouraged the DeCastro follower to research the situation before making attacks. By the time the supporter left the room, he was acting calmly towards others and wished everyone in the chat well before leaving.
The Welsh News Network broadcast had a delayed start time and started the show with co-host Becca joined by Mark the Sarcastic Law Student and Hank of Hank’s Corner. Becca explained that Welsh had been delayed due to work commitments and would be attempting to join the show. They briefly recapped the events of the day and started to review Jose “Chille” DeCastro’s live stream from that morning before Welsh News Network joined them.
Host Welsh News Network made a number of statements during the broadcast, starting by reminding those viewing the live stream that it was on them to follow up on Welsh’s reporting before coming to a conclusion on that reporting. He encouraged them to investigate for themselves and find the facts before commenting.
When an account known to be used by Jessica Slone entered the side chat and began to disparage the channel and the hosts of the channel for allegedly attacking her family, Host Welsh blocked the account. He, joined by co-host Becca, reminded Slone that they devoted more than an entire hour to the family’s story the previous week when they had members of the family, including Hudson’s mother, on the broadcast and that after the broadcast Host Welsh was prepared to donate $40,000 to the family’s GoFundMe campaign. Host Welsh changed his mind about making that donation only after Jessica and Opal Hudson appeared on DeCastro’s live stream the following day, embracing DeCastro and his open attacks on the police officer involved in the case.
Host Welsh made a chilling claim when asked to update the status of DeCastro’s alleged contact with children over social media to attend a rally in Huntington, West Virginia this weekend. He claimed that there were 17 reports of children running away from home in the past 24-hours in the United States. Of those 17, 15 were being handled as runaway cases, with the remaining two being looked for in the Huntington area as both had been in contact with DeCastro.
Co-host Becca then read an e-mail sent to the channel’s e-mail address and another sent to Tina Slay, who had appeared on the broadcast with the family the previous week, by Amber Brescoach, Laney Hudson’s aunt who had also appeared on the same broadcast. The e-mails accused the Welsh News Network hosts of attacking and lying to the family. Brescoach claimed that Opal Slone did not trust DeCastro but he was the only one fighting for justice on behalf of the family.
Host Welsh stated that he did have negative feelings about the family as they had attempted to prevent negative coverage of Jose “Chille” DeCastro. He felt that their appearance on the live stream the previous week was on behalf of DeCastro and was designed to squelch further negative attention towards DeCastro’s involvement in the case.
Co-host Becca and Host Welsh then revealed that Becca filed a police report with her local police after DeCastro’s direction of his followers to attack the channel. This was a precautionary move which they stated was to prevent DeCastro’s fans from SWATTING (sending police to someone’s house with a false report of dangerous situation) Becca. In the process, Becca was required to tell the police of a previous incident with DeCastro where he had negatively interacted towards Becca and her family via direct messaging.
In the hours that followed the end of the broadcast, Host Welsh contacted this reporter and updated the outcome of DeCastro’s attempts to brigade his channel. He provided screen shots of actions filed against the Welsh News Network channel (see below), Welsh showed that there are no active copyright strikes against his channel and no limits to on the visibility of his content.
