The video opens with a distressed family speaking to police officers and security outside a TK Maxx branch in Southampton city centre. It quickly becomes clear that the young mother had been assaulted just before filming began, and her children tearfully recount the events to the police.

Despite the evident trauma, the man behind the camera zooms in gleefully, ignoring a young girl pleading for him to stop. He also dismisses a policewoman’s warning: “They [the family] are victims of a crime; please give them some decency.” Instead, he accuses a child who tries to knock the phone from his hand of assault.

This chaotic footage, posted in July, has been viewed over 3.4 million times on TikTok. A longer version, titled Feral Females, follows a woman who appears mentally unwell and a drug addict, again begging to be left alone; this clip has been watched by 330,000 people on YouTube. Other videos from the same source involve Arnold provoking business owners, filming homeless people, drug users, and migrants in city centres.

These clips are just a small fraction of hundreds published by DJE Media across multiple social media platforms, described in the channel blurb as capturing “the good, the bad, and the ugly” of Britain’s streets.

The person behind the camera, when confronted, initially claims his name is “Dan” and asserts his actions are “in the public interest,” though he also goes by Curtis Arnold. His name is now permanently linked to one of the most disturbing and tragic events in recent UK history: the death of Nicola Bulley, a 45-year-old mother of two who disappeared while walking her dog in St Michael’s on Wyre, Lancashire, almost three years ago.

In this instance, Arnold’s pursuit of “public interest” content led him through a police cordon to secretly film police retrieving Nicola’s body from a river three weeks after her disappearance. This eight-minute clip, uploaded while the scene was still unfolding, became the most controversial and widely condemned of all the content surrounding Bulley’s case. Titled Nicola Bulley Breaking – Police found something!, it attracted almost a million views across his social media accounts.

Arnold posted the footage on YouTube and TikTok under an account initially called Nicola Bulley Case, later rebranded as Curtis Media, sometimes using Nicola’s partner Paul Ansell’s profile picture alongside videos of his media interviews, paired with sensationalist headlines. Mr. Ansell was entirely innocent, and an inquest later confirmed Nicola had accidentally drowned, but these truths were not highlighted in Arnold’s videos.

Importantly, Arnold has a criminal record as a convicted sex offender, including voyeurism and making indecent images of a child. He was jailed in February 2019 after pleading guilty to 12 counts of fraud, voyeurism, causing a person to engage in sexual activity, and making indecent images of a victim under 18. Among his crimes was posing as a fitness modeling agent to coerce women into sexualized photos, which he then used to sell products without permission. He was sentenced to 40 months in prison, reduced to 34 months, and placed on the sex offenders’ register for a decade.

Despite public exposure and arrests, Arnold has expanded his online presence, gaining 95,000 followers in the past month alone. His DJE Media brand now boasts 250,000 YouTube subscribers, 388,000 Facebook followers, 224,000 TikTok followers, and over 37,000 on Twitter.

Experts estimate he earns between £3,500 and £7,500 per month from advertising alone, with additional income from affiliate links listed under each video describing the equipment used. These include a £250 waterproof camera and an £850 drone, with Arnold earning a commission from product purchases via Amazon links. He also charges £4.99 per month for a “Gold” membership offering exclusive videos, though the number of subscribers is unclear. Many of his most profitable videos are over an hour long.

His audience, primarily teenagers and young adults, watches for shock value. YouTube allows such provocative content to remain online under its “educational” guidelines, relying on AI to flag violations due to the sheer volume of uploads. While filming minors is not inherently illegal, it may constitute harassment if targeted, repeated, and causing distress. Thames Valley Police are reviewing whether Arnold breached his Sexual Harm Prevention Order.

Since the Bulley case outrage, Arnold has partnered with bodyguard Fred Willis, whose presence appears to embolden Arnold as he continues provocations on Britain’s streets, targeting the homeless, drug users, the mentally unwell, and drunken partygoers.

A recent video in Manchester shows a woman in a public altercation, pleading not to be filmed. Arnold responds aggressively, refusing to stop. Videos are posted under provocative titles such as MENTALLY INSANE PICCADILLY ZOMBIES ARE AGGRESSIVE MY GOD and MANCHESTER’S FERAL FEEDING FRENZY.

Experts and charity workers, including Hendrix Lancaster of Coffee4Craig, condemn Arnold’s content as exploitation for profit, stripping vulnerable people of dignity and consent, dehumanizing them, and placing them at further risk.

Arnold avoids scrutiny aggressively; when newspapers exposed his past convictions, he personally visited their offices to deny them, offering no evidence. His modus operandi includes multiple aliases, a bodyguard, and provoking the public, which cannot be considered journalism.

As long as tech platforms financially incentivize extreme content and audiences crave shock, more creators like Arnold are likely to emerge. Arnold has been contacted for comment.