Boy, 15, admits throwing chair off Westfield balcony for TikTok ‘prank’
A teenager has pleaded guilty to throwing a sofa 50ft off a balcony at Westfield for a viral online ‘prank’.
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He was filmed picking up the 15kg seat at the east London shopping centre before hurling it over a glass balcony towards shoppers walking below.
It crashed to the ground, narrowly missing people walking underneath, before the teen and his friend fled.
The boy pleaded guilty today to criminal damage and causing a public nuisance at Stratford Youth Court.
Prosecutor Elizabeth Ajayi said the video showed “how close the sofa was to people who were walking below.”
A second 15-year-old boy, who filmed the viral footage of his friend, denied the same charges.
A previous charge of criminal damage that recklessly endangered life was dropped.
Ms Ajayi said the chair, which was worth £500, was thrown 50ft from the top floor.
One of the boys was seen "lifting a blue sofa and throwing it over the glass balustrade all the way down to the lower floor", she told the court.
"The video went viral," she continued.
"It's fortunate that nobody was injured."
Both boys admitted their involvement in police interviews, she added.
In a victim impact statement, a Westfield security officer said there had been "unease" among customers since the incident.
The boy who threw the chair told police: "It's not that deep, it did not hit no-one," the prosecutor added.
He also told officers he and his co-defendant "regularly indulge" in pranks, including "throwing objects off bridges at trains", Ms Ajayi said.
District Judge Talwinder Buttar released the youth on conditional bail until sentencing on August 13.
The second boy will next appear on September 24.