Love Island contestant reportedly leaves show over link to stabbing

Gabriel Garland, 24, was involved in New Year’s Eve altercation but not charged with any offence

A Love Island contestant has reportedly left the programme over his connection to a stabbing in London.

Gabriel Garland, 24, was removed from the ITV2 dating series after briefly featuring in an episode on Sunday night as a Casa Amor villa boy.

“Gabriel has now left the villa and will not be returning,” an ITV spokesperson said in a statement to the Guardian. It is understood the broadcaster will not comment further out of a duty of care to participants.

Garland was reportedly removed from the series after producers became aware he was named in court documents in the conviction of Vitor Mazzer, who was found guilty of two counts of grievous bodily harm with intent over a New Year’s Eve incident in 2019 in south-east London .

The court documents state that Garland had an altercation with the people stabbed by Mazzer. Garland’s mother gave a character statement for her son, who was 17 at the time of the incident.

He was not charged with any offence and the judgment made no finding of wrongdoing against him. This may explain why it did not come up in ITV’s background check.

Mazzer was jailed for 42 months and his appeal against conviction was refused in April 2024.

Garland was in Sunday night’s episode of Love Island as one of six Casa Amor male contestants. Barring an introduction, he did not appear in any major scenes and will be cut from the rest of the show.

News that Garland would be in the Love Island villa prompted social media users to question ITV’s background checks.

The show is produced by Lifted Entertainment, part of ITV Studios, and WPP Media Motion Entertainment.

On 4 June, George Knight left the show for “private reasons” over health concerns relating to an immediate family member.

Two Love Island USA contestants have also left this year’s series, which is produced by ITV America. Alannah Keyser was removed last week after historical social media posts emerged appearing to show her using a racial slur. One video showed her apparently lip-syncing to the N-word in a song, while other screenshots showed her appearing to use the same slur in an Instagram comment and Snap message.

The posts came from a private account and were not made public until after Keyser entered the villa, and were therefore not flagged during a vetting process. After her exit, Keyser apologised in a TikTok video.

Vasana Montgomery was also removed from the series after she was seen appearing to use the N-word in two different videos that were circulated online. Montgomery later apologised in an Instagram statement.