The YouTube star who seemingly tricked Katie Hopkins into accepting a “completely fake” award has said he had ”no regrets” following the offensive speech that saw her mock Muslims, Asian people and epilepsy sufferers.
Josh Pieters has spoken out about the prank after the video he uploaded to the platform went viral.
The clip revealed the former Apprentice contestant had flown to Prague to collect the “Campaign to Unify the Nation Trophy”.
In footage from the “ceremony”, Hopkins – a far-right commentator – can be seen smiling with Pieters in front of a screen bearing enlarged capital letters that spell out the C-word.
Pieters, who organised the elaborate prank alongside Archie Manners for two and a half months, told Metro that he came up with the idea after Hopkins reportedly claimed the photo of three-year-old refugee Aylan Kurdi’s body on a beach had been staged.
“That in particular really just upset me a lot,” he said, adding: “I wanted to use my freedom of speech to publicise how awful she is and embarrass her because I think that’s only fair.”
Pieters, 26, said that Hopkins had “absolutely no idea” about the prank, and that he “couldn’t believe” the speech she delivered after accepting it.
Among other offensive remarks, Hopkins – believing the actors in the room to be fans – said: “East London is fairly s**tty at the best of times – 82 per cent are Muslim. What can I say?’
“I never knew that was going to happen. She signed a release form so legally she was talking on camera, knowing that the footage we were filming could be distributed anywhere. It was really, really strange to hear how normal she thought what she was saying was.”
Hopkins’ Twitter account was suspended earlier this week after being accused of spreading hate.
