Man pleads guilty to sharing 'offensive' video of Grenfell Tower model on fire

A man has admitted sending a “grossly offensive” video of a cardboard model of Grenfell Tower burning on a bonfire.

Paul Bussetti, 49, made siren noises and said “that’s what happens when you don’t pay the rent” in the video that sparked outrage after it was shared, a court heard.

The father of two pleaded guilty at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday and was handed a suspended jail sentence.

He was cleared of posting the video in August 2019, but prosecutors appealed against the verdict and the High Court ordered a retrial.

Bussetti sent the video on WhatsApp after filming it at a party in a friend’s garden in November 2018.

The footage, in which cardboard figures burned as the model went up in flames, was then widely shared online – prompting outrage after the 2017 blaze in west London that killed 72 people.

He was given a 10 week jail sentence, suspended for two years.

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Defendant made siren noises and comments about ‘rent’

The court heard there were direct and indirect references to the residents of Grenfell Tower in the footage.

They included comments of: “Who’s jumping?”; “Don’t worry, stay in your flats”; and “Jump out of the window”.

The court heard Bussetti said: “That’s what happens when you don’t pay the rent” and made siren noises.

As the fire climbs up the model building, one of the people question whether they should have put the tower on upside down, because the fire started on the 10th floor.

One person shouts “jump out the window” while another offers the original fire brigade advice before the scale of the tragedy was understood, saying “stay in your flats”.

Bussetti sent the video to two WhatsApp groups – one football-related, and one for a holiday group.

National outrage in wake of one of UK’s worst fire and tower tragedies

The video was shared widely and made the national news, leading to public outcry in the wake of the tragedy at Grenfell – one of the worst fire and tower disasters the UK has ever seen.

A victim impact statement read out in court on behalf of the Grenfell victims said: “The overall reaction of the Grenfell community was one of shock, horror and outrage.”

Khadijah Mamudu, whose mother and younger brother escaped the fire, previously said of the video: “Their actions upset so many people around the world and they need to think long and hard.

“When one is ignorant of the world and people that are around them they do the most stupid and vile things.”

Theresa May, who was Prime Minister at the time of the fire, was one of those who criticised the actions in the video, calling them “utterly unacceptable”.

Sajid Javid said the survivors of the tragedy deserved to be treated with the “utmost respect”.

Bussetti: ‘It was terrible, definitely offensive to people’

The court heard Bussetti handed himself in to police when the footage went viral.

He is said to have told police: “It was all over the telly and so we thought it was better to tell the truth.”

“It was terrible, definitely offensive to people, it was just complete stupidness (sic), one of those stupid moments.”

Bussetti, through his lawyer, said told the court that it was not his intention to cause offence, but rather to mock his own friends privately.

A video of the effigy was posted on YouTube, although Bussetti was not responsible for this, nor was it established whether it was Bussetti’s video which was uploaded and went viral.

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