A Skyrim username mistake sent a man to prison for over a year

After spending 18 months in prison, a man named Brandon Klayme was finally declared innocent in late July by a court in Nova Scotia, Canada. Klayme was arrested in 2020 on child pornography charges and sentenced to prison in 2023 — and it all came down to a single underscore contained in a reference to The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim.

CBC reports that, six years ago, authorities in Wisconsin became confused while attempting to find someone with the username fus__ro_dah. The suspect, who was accused of possessing child pornography and luring a child, had a Kik username that referenced the Unrelenting Force dragon shout in Bethedsa Softworks’ popular fantasy RPG Skyrim. What police didn’t realize in 2020 was that the suspect had two underscores in their username after the syllable “fus,” not one.

When authorities used a subpoena to obtain the suspect’s IP address, they were led to Klayme and his nearly identical Kik name. Klayme’s fus_ro_dah username, however, only had a single underscore after the syllable “fus.” After a trial in 2023, Klayme was nonetheless sentenced to 18 months in prison and 18 months of probation.

It was not until 2026, when Klayme’s defense attorneys were working on an appeal, that anyone noticed a difference in usernames. The victim had given police a visual description of the perpetrator in 2020, but the conviction was largely based on Klayme’s ownership of a digital account with a specific username.

The appeal court recently ruled that there was no link between Klayme and the underage victim — and that he was not responsible for the offending photographs or conversations. Authorities now believe the username actually belongs to someone in California.

The police findings “contained a subtle mistake that changed the course of my life,” Klayme said in an affidavit for the appeal.

In July 2026, the Nova Scotia panel reviewing the case declared that Klayme “should never have been charged, let alone convicted.” Klayme has since been acquitted on all charges.