Two teenage boys accused of endangering lives when a seat was thrown off a balcony at Westfield in east London have appeared in court for the first time.
The teens, aged 14 and 15, have been charged with criminal damage over the incident on March 1 when a seat was thrown off a third-floor balcony at the Stratford shopping centre.
The footage, which went viral online, shows the seat crashing down on the floor below, narrowly missing shoppers who were walking by.
The two teenagers appeared at Stratford magistrates court on Tuesday to face the charge for the first time.
However, the hearing had to be adjourned because interpreters had not been booked for both sets of parents, who had attended court as appropriate adults to support their sons.
Aneeta Prem, chairing the bench of magistrates, agreed to delay the case until a hearing on May 21.
“We do need the parents to fully engage and understand what’s happening”, she said.
“It’s really important - they must be able to support their sons, and we can’t proceed without these things being in place.”
She urged lawyers and court officials to “pull out all the stops” to ensure the case could be fully dealt with at the next hearing.
Police arrested the boys after the video went viral on Tiktok, showing a heavy seat being launched over the balcony.
It appears to narrowly miss members of the public when it lands on the floor below.
The person who threw the chair and someone else filming the incident are then seen to run away from the scene.
Both boys confirmed their names, addresses, and ages to the court, but no pleas were entered to the charge of criminal damage and recklessly endangering life.
One of the accused teenagers had to be told to take his hands out of his tracksuit pockets when talking to the magistrates.
The boys were set free on bail, with conditions not to contact each other, not go to Westfield, and to observe a 9pm to 6am home curfew.
