A man in Nova Scotia spent 18 months in prison for a crime he did not commit, and the reason ultimately came down to a single underscore in a Skyrim-inspired username on a messaging app. Brandon Klayme was arrested in 2020, convicted in 2023, and served his full sentence before his legal team finally spotted the mistake while preparing his appeal earlier this year.
The case began in 2018 when Wisconsin authorities started investigating a man on the messaging platform Kik who had been soliciting images from a 12-year-old girl. The suspect's username was "fus__ro_dah," a reference to the Unrelenting Force dragon shout from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. When police submitted a court order to Kik to identify the account, they accidentally included a different username in the document ("fus_ro_dah"), with one underscore instead of two. Kik returned the email address and IP address associated with that account, which led investigators to Klayme.
From there, the investigation moved through Canadian authorities, who traced the IP address to Klayme's home in Halifax, conducted searches, and seized his devices. No prohibited material was found, but that did not stop the case from proceeding to trial. Klayme was later convicted and sentenced to 18 months in prison, followed by 18 months of probation.
It was not until Klayme's defence attorney, Zeb Brown, began preparing the appeal in early 2026 that anyone noticed the discrepancy. "We were trying to figure out why the digital forensic evidence pointed at him given his denial of any involvement," Brown told CBC News.
The appeal panel acquitted Klayme on all charges, saying, "Mr. Klayme is factually innocent of the offences. He should never have been charged, let alone convicted." Authorities now believe the correct username likely belongs to someone in California. In an affidavit for his appeal, Klayme described the police error as "a subtle mistake that changed the course of my life."
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As for other Skyrim news, last month, publisher Bethesda shared a major studio update outlining its lineup of games following the mass layoffs at Xbox, confirming that The Elder Scrolls VI remains the studio's top priority. The company also recently said that the layoffs will not affect the game's development roadmap.
