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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
National
Nadeem Badshah

UK TikTok prankster Mizzy could be jailed for flouting court order

Bacari-Bronze O'Garro
Bacari-Bronze O'Garro, known as Mizzy, shared videos of individuals online within hours of a court ordering him not to. Photograph: Victoria Jones/PA

The TikTok prankster known as Mizzy has been banned from using social media and warned he faces a custodial sentence after he was found guilty of posting videos featuring people without their consent.

The social media personality, real name Bacari-Bronze O’Garro, was found to have “deliberately flouted” a court order prohibiting him from sharing videos of individuals without their permission “within hours” of it being issued.

Judge Bone, overseeing the trial at Stratford magistrates court in London on Thursday, criticised O’Garro for “lacking all credibility” after he denied four counts of breaching the order.

He ordered him not to use social media “at all” except to send messages until he is sentenced next month and warned he could go to prison for the offences he had committed.

The court heard how the 19-year-old began sharing videos of people without their consent on the same day the criminal behaviour order was passed on 24 May this year.

It was shown footage, shared on his account with X, previously known as Twitter, on the night of 24 May featuring him in Westfield shopping centre, Stratford, after he appeared on Piers Morgan’s TalkTV show and mocked the British judicial system.

In the video, passersby were visible in the background as O’Garro said to the camera: “The UK law is a joke.”

Other videos shared on O’Garro’s Snapchat account, which were also in breach, showed him grabbing hold of a schoolboy by his uniform. Another showed him fighting a man with dwarfism. O’Garro claimed these were hoax videos made with the prior agreement of those featured.

O’Garro’s claim that one of his friends, who had access to his login details, posted the videos on X without his consent, was dismissed by Bone as “inconceivable”.

Bone found O’Garro 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.

O’Garro will be sentenced on 21 November at Thames magistrates court.

Earlier, O’Garro’s defence lawyer, Paul Lennon, tried to adjourn the hearing, saying the defendant had recently been arrested on suspicion of perverting the course of justice.

Also arrested was O’Garro’s main witness in the case, who was due to give evidence at the trial, and both were bailed on the condition they did not contact each other, the court heard.

Lennon claimed his client was unable to receive a “fair trial” without his only witness, but his application was rejected by Bone.

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