TikTok prankster Mizzy banned from social media and warned he faces jail
TikTok ‘prankster’ Mizzy has been banned from using social media after being convicted of posting videos without consent.
The 19-year-old, real name Bacari-Bronze O’Garro, was found to have ‘deliberately flouted’ a ban on sharing clips of people without their permission ‘within hours’ of it being imposed.
Judge Matthew Bone ordered the father-of-one not to use social media ‘at all’ except to send messages until he is sentenced next month and warned that he could go to prison.
It comes after his defence lawyer Paul Lennon revealed to Stratford Magistrates’ Court earlier on Thursday that the teen had been arrested on suspicion of perverting the course of justice.
Mizzy’s main witness in the case, who was due to give evidence at the trial, was also arrested and both were bailed on the condition they do not contact each other.
Mr Lennon attempted to have it put back to a later date, claiming the teenager was unable to receive a ‘fair trial’ without his only witness, but Judge Bone rejected the application.
The court heard how Mizzy began sharing videos of people without their consent on the same day the criminal behaviour order was passed on May 24 this year.
It was shown footage shared on his Twitter page on the night of May 24 showing him in the nearby Westfield Shopping Centre after appearing on Piers Morgan’s TalkTV show.
In the video, passersby were visible in the background as he said to the camera: ‘The UK law is a joke.’
Other videos shared on Mizzy’s Snapchat account, which were also in breach, showed him grabbing hold of a schoolboy by his uniform and another showing him fight a man with dwarfism, which O’Garro claimed were hoax videos made with their prior agreement.
Mizzy’s claim that one of his friends, who had access to his login details, posted the Twitter videos without his consent, was dismissed by Judge Bone as ‘inconceivable’.
The judge said: ‘I have to say I did not accept the evidence of the defendant – it lacked all credibility.
‘Within hours of the criminal behaviour order he posed (in Westfield) stating the video would be shared and it was.
‘The defendant was filmed trying to shake a man’s hand from whom consent was not obtained.
‘He had just appeared on national television saying the British law was weak.
‘I found it to be an intentional, immediate and deliberate challenge to the criminal behaviour order.
‘Dealing again with charge four, two people were roughed up on camera by the defendant – I found his behaviour was again a deliberate challenge to the criminal behaviour order.’
Mizzy, from Stoke Newington, north London, denied but was found guilty of four counts of breaching the order.
Judge Bone found him not guilty on two further counts of the same charge, ruling that the videos in question may already have been shared before the criminal behaviour order was passed.
However, he warned Mizzy: ‘The defendant shouldn’t take much comfort from that. What I have convicted him of crosses the custody threshold.
‘This is a man who has stepped over the line of the order in a deliberate way. You need to understand the seriousness of your situation now.
‘You need to understand that you deliberately flouted this court order within hours of it being made.’
Mizzy will be sentenced on November 21 at Thames Magistrates Court.
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