The 16-year-old, who cannot be named due to legal reasons, hurled the 15kg blue chair 50 feet downwards towards punters at the busy mall in Stratford, east London, in March. He and his friend, then 14, were arrested when a video of the incident bearing the caption 'No way bro almost killed someone' went viral on social media.
The 16-year-old boy claimed that he and his friend regularly threw objects off bridges and trains as 'pranks'. He later admitted recklessly causing a public nuisance and criminal damage. Wearing a black Nike t-shirt, the 16-year-old boy appeared in the dock at Stratford Youth Court today accompanied by a Somali interpreter.
Presumably he knows enough English to make videos on social media, so why should the taxpayer fork out for an interpreter?
Mark Tooley, representing the 16-year-old, said he had been 'showing off'
'Perhaps he may well have sought to make friends in the wrong kind of way - it was called showing off when I was a kid.
I doubt this was the sort of thing kids routinely did when you were a kid. No-one had social media then. Nor Somali immigrants.
'It still applies here doing something criminally stupid and reckless, but happily causing no harm
'He is an immature young man yet to come anywhere close to full maturity and understanding - rehabilitation is the key.'
I can think of a more appropriate word beginning with ‘R’ - repatriation!
District Judge Shanta Deonarine said the two offences were 'so serious that no other sentence is appropriate other than a custodial sentence'.
For a paltry 8 months, in a youth offender centre holiday camp?
The judge said the offending was mitigated by the fact he was 'intellectually a low functioning individual with impaired intellectual ability'.
The description ‘Somali’ covered that, and why is it mitigation?
His 15-year-old friend denies both charges and will stand trial on December 2.
Wasting yet more taxpayer money. This one hits hard, because I have the misfortune to walk through this mall every office day.
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