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 prompted outrage after it was widely shared online.
The father of two pleaded guilty at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday and was given 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 burn as the model goes up in flames, was widely criticised after the 2017 blaze in west London that killed 72 people.
Bussetti was given a 10-week jail sentence, suspended for two years.
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Defendant made siren noises
The footage contained direct and indirect references to the residents of Grenfell Tower, the court was told.
Comments included “who’s jumping?”, “don’t worry, stay in your flats” and “jump out of the window”.
Bussetti can be heard saying: “That’s what happens when you don’t pay the rent” and making siren noises.
As the flames climbs up the model building, one of the people questions whether they should have put the tower on the bonfire 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
The video was shared widely, leading to public outcry after one of the worst fire and tower disasters in the UK.
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, the prime minister at the time of the fire in June 2017, was among those who criticised the video, calling it “utterly unacceptable”.
Sajid Javid said the survivors of the tragedy deserved to be treated with the “utmost respect”.
Bussetti: ‘It was terrible’
Bussetti handed himself in to police when the footage went viral, the court heard.
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, one of those stupid moments.”
Bussetti, through his lawyer, told the court that it was not his intention to cause offence, but rather to mock his own friends privately.
