CONTROVERSIAL pick-up artist Julien Blanc has left Australia, police have confirmed.

“We can confirm Julien Blanc left Australia overnight,” Victoria Police tweeted.

“His assistant is also due to leave shortly.”

We can confirm that Julien Blanc left Australia overnight. His assistant is also due to leave shortly. — Victoria Police (@VictoriaPolice) November 7, 2014

Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Ken Lay added his support to the widespread condemnation of Blanc, labelling most of his work “deeply disturbing and offensive”.

“Labelling women as objects and actively promoting the abuse of women degrades the dignity of our whole community,” Mr Lay said in a statement earlier today.

“We want to assure everyone that we have been paying close attention to this issue and appreciate that so many community members have expressed concern.

“I was enormously relieved The Como Melbourne rejected his event and other venues followed suit.

“I’m proud that Victoria has taken this stance against violence. It gives me confidence that we are moving in the right direction.”

Last night, angry protesters shut down a seminar run by Blanc’s assistant Max, which had been moved to a Melbourne River Cruises boat after several hotels refused to host the gathering.

The protesters managed to stop the boat leaving Southbank by climbing on it and holding onto ropes, forcing police to clear about 50 attendees off the boat.

Mr Blanc was supposed to run the seminar but did not arrive.

RELATED:Protest shuts down seminar given by Julien Blanc’s buddy

EARLIER, a man who attended controversial pick-up artist Julian Blanc’s Sydney seminar last week has spoken in defence of the “seduction coach”.

Macquarie University student Erfan Ranjbar told the Leader a friend paid for his ticket to the $300-a-head session, where Blanc showed attendees videos and shared techniques for luring women.

Mr Ranjbar stressed that he did not support Blanc’s more extreme techniques, such as choking women and pulling their faces into his crotch, which he agreed would amount to sexual assault if performed on an unwilling partner.

But he said “it’s not like he goes and randomly chokes girls, he does that when he has already ‘hooked’ them, they’re already interested and he’s about to make out with them.”

Mr Ranjbar said Blanc warned participants that “if a girl is saying ‘no’, you have to back down”, and that the choking video aimed to demonstrate how far Blanc’s powers of seduction extended.

“He showed a clip of an emotionally distressed girl ... She opened up and explained that she’d been raped by her father … He said ‘with every girl who is being a b----, you have to understand that there’s a scared little girl on the inside.”

Mr Ranjbar said Blanc and other pick-up artists, known as PUAs, helped socially awkward men increase their confidence.

“There’s more than 500 people in Sydney who are into this, it’s a self development group,” he said.

media_camera Julien Blanc in an image from his Facebook site.

Destroy the Joint founder Jenna Price said the best source of advice on how a woman wanted to be treated was “the woman herself”.

“We aren’t generic,” Ms Price said.

“These sessions imply that young men will suddenly know the rules … If a young man really wants to know the way to a woman’s heart, the answer is clear. Don’t be a d--k. Be funny, be kind, be interested — and don’t think it’s about getting your end in instantly.”

EARLIER, online trolls invaded a social media campaign against the pick-up artist.

The moderator of the Shut down Julien Blanc Facebook page has been furiously deleting posts by men’s rights advocates, including one who argued that Blanc’s tactics could help men who suffer from “social anxiety”.

“Posts defending Blanc WILL be deleted,” Ginny Adams warned.

“If you are defending it from a position of ignorance try doing a 10 second Google search before wading in.”

RELATED:Calls to deport Julien Blanc

Pro-Blanc Reddit users labelled the protesters “feminazis” and said that “girls don’t want Julien’s tactics to be released into the world because we men will be less receptive to their bull****.”

One user labelled Blanc a “genius” who “chokes more b----es than Nigella Lawson’s husband”.

Another complained that “women can just go to the store and choose from a multitude of magazines that teach them how to manipulate men in order to get them”.

The Twittersphere exploded yesterday as protesters lobbied St Kilda venues in a bid to lock him out of the suburb, posting with the hash tag #takedownjulienblanc.

Amid the furore, unwanted attention turned on Fitzroy St bar The Wee Chief, where a group of men calling themselves the “Puss-ay Patrol”, initially thought to be linked to Blanc, showed up.

It later emerged that the group were fans of the television show InBetweeners and had no connection to Blanc.

Staff member Nicole Loyson posted on Facebook:

“The management and staff at The Wee Chief would like to say we have no idea who Julien Blanc is. Random people have started to post on our timeline. Having read the comments, we have a slight understanding of who this guy now is. We have never spoken to him, never met him, he certainly has not been at our venue and is not welcome with the beliefs he holds.”

Blanc had announced plans to hold his seminar at a secret St Kilda location, after South Yarra’s Como hotel cancelled his booking for tonight after a 10,000 strong online petition.

More than 800 people have signed up for a protest at the meeting spot Blanc gave his followers, the St Kilda pier, at 6.30pm.

Protesters phoned venue owners yesterday warning them not to take bookings from Julien Blanc’s company, Real Social Dynamics.

Encore co-owner Angela Dawson said the company had tried to book a function at her venue for tonight.

“He made an inquiry, but we weren’t able to accommodate him, and obviously wouldn’t want to,” Ms Dawson said.

“We don’t know where it’s being held, but hopefully nowhere near us.”

Ms Dawson said she had not realised the nature of the inquiry as it seemed like “a normal corporate booking”.

“Then we started getting calls from protesters,” she said.

The West Beach Pavilion rejected a similar booking request, while the St Kilda Yacht Club, Novotel, Circa and Lady Grange indicated they would not host it.

RELATED: Fury at ‘abuse’ date coach

Confusion erupted on social media yesterday afternoon when protesters started phoning the Little Blue Restaurant on the pier, in the mistaken belief it was hosting the event.

In a statement on the restaurant’s Facebook page, the owners wrote:

“Hey guys — apparently Julien Blanc, the creepy guy that abuses women to pick them up, has said he is hosting a seminar at little blue tomorrow night ... We support women’s rights and would never allow him to host a seminar at our venue ... All the management at little blue are women, so we’re pretty unimpressed that he has suggested that we would support him.”

Protest organiser Ginny Adams labelled Blanc a “sad act who thinks sexual harassment and assault equals picking up”.

“Australia has appalling levels of sexual assault and other violence against women — the last thing we need is someone coming to run workshops on how to do it better,” Ms Adams said.

In an online promotion for the relocated event, Blanc promises “three hardcore hours of intense dating, seduction and self-actualisation” training.

Port Phillip Council tweeted that it would “not be issuing an event permit” for the seminar.

Leader has emailed Julien Blanc inviting him to comment.

Do you know more? Email dana.mccauley@news.com.au