The guitarist from pop punk group Neck Deep has quit the five-piece following accusations he sent sexually explicit messages to an underage fan.

They confirmed Lloyd Roberts had stepped down from the award-winning band amid claims.

Neck Deep, who are originally from Wrexham, are placed at No 8 in the UK albums chart with Life’s Not Out To Get You and are due to play the Reading and Leeds Festivals this weekend.

After initially tweeting to fans that they were taking the accusations “very seriously”, Neck Deep later issued a further statement on Sunday confirming they had parted ways with Roberts so as not to be “sullied further”.

It read: “Yesterday, there were some allegations aimed towards our band. We feel that these situations should always be approached with the utmost regard for all parties, so we thank you for your patience whilst we have dealt with this matter internally.

“Whilst the full facts of the matter at hand are still unclear, our guitarist Lloyd Roberts has decided to step down from Neck Deep to focus on his family, as he does not feel comfortable having his reputation, or that of the band sullied further by these accusations.

“We sincerely apologise to anyone who has been caused distress or been affected by any of these events. As a band, we absolutely treasure our fans, we would not be anywhere without them, and we would never want them to feel disrespected or taken advantage of.”

neck deep punk band
Neck Deep celebrating their Best British Newcomer win at the 2014 Kerrang Awards (Dominic Lipinski/PA)

It added: “Further, we cannot emphasise enough that serious allegations of this kind should ALWAYS be brought to the attention of the relevant authorities, and we urge anyone genuinely affected to use those official channels. ”

Neck Deep were named best British newcomer at the Kerrang! Awards and were described on the Reading and Leeds Festivals website as being “poised on the brink of certain Stateside superstardom”.

All shows are set to go ahead as planned.