A Leeds takeaway owner says he’s been receiving “death threats” after sharing an image of Madeleine McCann to promote his business for Mother’s Day.
Joe Scholey, 29, who owns The Otley Burger Company, cracked a ‘joke’ on social media about the missing girl and her mum Kate McCann. Along with pictures of the pair, the post said: “With burgers this good, you’ll leave your kids at home. What’s the worst that could happen [sic] Happy Mother’s Day to all the mums out there.”
The post split audiences on Facebook. People have called it “unacceptable”, “absolutely disgusting”, along with calls for the burger-joint to be shut down. Whereas others have called it a “bit of fun”, even claiming McCann's parent didn’t deserve sympathy.
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The Otley Burger Company is situated in a silver old fashioned burger trailer, which Joe purchased for £16,000 with help of a loan, in the beer garden of The Otley Tap House in Boroughgate in the market town centre.
Joe, who stands at 6’3”, can't hold back a smirk when he talks about the post, which has outraged so many. He’s been known for provoking social media attention through the takeaway’s Facebook and Instagram account over the past few years.
The 29-year-old, who employs 20 members of staff, sees causing outrage as “playing the game, playing to win” as each time it’s resulted in more sales. Joe says it has attracted death threats, however.
The takeaway owner, originally from Harehills, said: “I get death threats. I got one this morning. I got a petrol bombing one this morning - which is always good.”
Joe showed a message where a person wrote “I hope someone firebombs your gaffe”. The burger man told the person to “s*** a d*** you dosser” and called him a “c***” and a “turnip”. Joe hasn’t reported threats to the police and doesn’t seem particularly concerned about them any longer, he says he receives that many.
Joe has defended the post. He said: “I’m not taking the mick out of a missing toddler. I’m basically putting, ‘Happy Mother’s Day’ to all the mums. She [Kate McCann] is a mum. Not the world’s greatest mum and not the world’s worst. She’s a mum, there’s one there."
Madeleine, then three, disappeared in 2007 while she was on a family holiday in Portugal. Parents Kate and Gerry left her unattended in the hotel room, with her siblings, while they were out with friends at a nearby restaurant.
Last year, Joe was in hot water for sharing a Mother’s Day post with a picture of disgraced Karen Matthews, who pretended her daughter had been abducted. On Father’s Day, he shared a promotional image featuring Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe, Jimmy Saville and Fred West.
Joe admitted the first death threats he received over the Karen Matthews post was “stressful” and “awful” and said he was barely able to sleep.
Joe said: “When the Karen Matthews one blew up, it put a load of money in the till. I was like, ‘That was unexpected – should we do it again for Father’s Day?’ But it was stressful. It was awful. We were getting death threats and stuff. We didn’t sleep for two days.”
'Monsters'
The Otley Burger Company has also been egged and bricked on multiple occasions, following the controversial posts. Joe said he’s only involved the police once as he doesn’t think there is much point in reporting bricks as he couldn’t prove who’s done it.
Recalling one occasion, Joe said: “This guy just started egging the s*** out of me and calling us monsters. Then all the chefs kicked off and ran after them down the street. I just thought it was hilarious.
“The ones who throw bricks are pathetic, they need to grow up – coming from me, that’s quite funny. The ones who post stuff on Facebook, they’ve got to expect me to give them it back.”
After the Father’s Day post, he claims “nine out of ten people saw it as a joke, it was a very dark joke” – he claims the main source of outrage he initially received was over the fact Peter Sutcliffe wasn’t a dad.
But author and inspirational speaker Richard McCann, whose mother Wilma McCann was murdered by Sutcliffe, hit out at Joe for using the images of Sutcliffe, Saville and West. He questioned “how on earth” Joe could think it “appropriate” and said “shame on you”.
Joe said: “I used pictures of Peter Sutcliffe, yeah, but I’d just literally watched the Peter Sutcliffe documentary."
What do you think of the controversial post? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.
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