DJ Marty Guilfoyle has described the torrent of online abuse which prompted him to leave Dublin's first 'TikTok house'.

The music producer and radio presenter was one of ten Irish social media personalities taking part in the content hub project called The Goat House.

However, in a statement on Friday, he said he would no longer be involved after some Twitter users accused him of being "weird" or "predatory" as he is older than others in the house.

Speaking on Newstalk Breakfast today, Marty said he was "good" after the last few days but had "a bit of a teary moment" yesterday.

He said joining the house initially was a good career opportunity as the video-sharing app TikTok is a powerful platform for promoting music.

He said when he entered the house, he had no idea who else would be there but said it is "nothing like" Big Brother or Love Island.

He added: "We were coming together to make videos and the only difference between that and a work environment is that I had a bedroom."

Marty said he made sure that before he entered the house he had a certificate showing he tested negative for COVID-19.

He said the other people in the house, who come from several different households, do not leave the premises but he himself had been going to the gym and work while there.

He added: "They are technically self-isolating in there as one household, they haven't left."

Abuse

On the first night in the house, Marty said comments started "trickling in" on social media about him.

He said: "I don't mean this in a big-headed way, but while [the others] are big on [TikTok], when it came to mainstream media in Ireland I was the recognisable one.

"There are four teenage girls in there, one is 18 and three are 19, the rest of the people are in their 20s, in fact, 29 and 30.

"Someone decided to put up a tweet saying 'there's something very predatory about Marty Guilfoyle being in there while there's teenage girls in there' with no other mention of anyone else in the house.

"That started to catch fire and really take off on Twitter.

"I was shocked, I couldn't believe it because to me that was just me coming into work."

He said the house is a four-storey mansion and that he had his own floor.

He said: "There was no mention of the girl in her 20s but since she was in a relationship I think everyone just presumed that can't be spoken about, she's, for want of a better word 'safe', the way people were describing the actions I had intended on doing.

"People are implying that I'm in there with crazy intentions."

Emotional effect

Marty said he has been in the Ireland 'trends' on Twitter for three days now.

He said he felt sorry for his Mum because she saw how similar incidents have affected media personalities in the past.

He said: "I'm grateful she would be making sure I'm okay but she would be thinking the worst and saw what people have done before."

He told her he was fine but then things started escalating online with people "jumping on the bandwagon" of comments about him being with young girls.

He said it got to a stage where he through the comments could tarnish his career so he made the decision to leave.

Marty said: "I'm not disappointed that it caused me to leave the house, I'm disappointed that it actually happens.

"I'm disappointed in the way I let it get to me because I'm usually very strong with this sort of stuff.

"The main thing that really annoyed and disappointed me was that these people were preaching 'be kind'.

He said he replied to one person who had accused him of sleeping with an underage girl in college.

On their profile, she had said that she would be happy to speak with anyone if they ever needed to talk when they were feeling down.

Marty said he wrote to that person privately saying, "hey is it okay if I DM you if your tweet ever makes me feel down", and they were immediately apologetic as they didn't think he would see their post.

He said some Twitter users are still trying to justify why they feel he is predatory.

He added: "I actually felt sorry for one user because they said they're 20 and they have had issues with a guy in his late 20s in the past.

"I'm really sorry that they had to go through that but please don't tarnish all men in their late 20s and 30s with the same brush because you've had a bad experience."