A 15-year-old boy has pleaded guilty to throwing a sofa 50ft from a balcony at Westfield for a viral online “prank”.
The teenager was filmed by a friend as he picked up the 15-kilo seat at the east London shopping centre and hurled it over the glass balcony on the top floor.
The sofa crashed to the ground, narrowly missing shoppers on the ground floor, before the teen and his friend fled.
At Stratford youth court on Wednesday, the boy pleaded guilty to criminal damage and causing a public nuisance.
The court was told the boy admitted to police that he “regularly indulges in pranks including throwing objects off bridges at trains”.
Prosecutor Elizabeth Ajayi said the Westfield video footage “shows how close the sofa was to people who were walking below, and we are just fortunate that no one was injured by the throwing of the sofa”.
A second 15-year-old boy, who filmed the viral footage of his friend, denied the same charges.
Both boys had originally been charged with a more serious criminal damage, alleging “recklessly endangering life”, but that was dropped by prosecutors.
Ms Ajayi said the incident, at around 10.30pm on March 1, was captured on self-shot footage which went viral on social media, as well as on shopping centre CCTV.
“They were located on the top floor of the shopping centre”, she said.
“Both of them approached a seating area, there was what appeared to be a brief conversation between them, and what is then seen is (he) lifts a blue sofa put there for shoppers and threw it over the glass balustrade, all the way to the lower floor.”
The prosecutor said the boy who filmed the incident was recognised by a police officer after the video went viral, and the second teenager was then traced.
The boy who threw the sofa told officers: “It’s not that deep, I did not hit no one.”
The court heard the sofa fell around 50ft, causing approximately £500 of damage.
The guilty boy was set free on bail until a sentencing hearing on August 13.
The court heard he has no previous convictions, and District Judge Talwinder Buttar asked for reports to be prepared, warning that a spell in custody was possible.
The second boy is due to face a trial at a later date.
Both boys appeared in court alongside their parents, in youth court proceedings where their identities are protected due to their ages.
