Millionaire in dock over Grenfell effigy video is accused of mocking dead
A PROPERTY millionaire who filmed an effigy of Grenfell Tower being burned was accused of ‘making a mockery’ of the 72 victims yesterday.
Paul Bussetti sent the video to two WhatsApp groups last year before the footage went viral, causing public outrage.
The 47-year-old sat in the dock as the shocking footage of the bonfire was played twice to Westminster magistrates.
In the clip, a group of men and women howl with laughter and shout ‘help me’ and ‘jump out of the window’ as the cardboard effigy and its cardboard figures are engulfed in flames.
They also talk about a ‘ninja’ which prosecutor Philip Stott said is believed to refer to a cardboard figure that was wearing a niqab.
The footage, shared on November 4 last year, was branded ‘revolting’ by the aunt of 12-yearold Jessica Urbano Ramirez, who died on the top floor of the tower on June 14, 2017.
In a statement read to the court, Sandra Ruiz said: ‘Jessica was repeatedly told to stay in the flat in the longest call to the fire brigade that night and the video made a mockery of her death.’
Bussetti, co-owner of an £8million block of flats in Clapham, south-west London, denies sending a ‘grossly offensive’ video on WhatsApp and causing footage of a ‘ menacing character’ to be uploaded on YouTube. Mr Stott said Bussetti, from South Norwood, told police he had ‘no idea’ why he filmed the video and that it had been ‘one of those stupid moments’. The court heard how Bussetti said: ‘I’m not gonna blame it on the drink but I don’t know why I done it [sic]. I’ve no idea, it was just sick.’
The prosecution also told the court the sending of the video had been ‘racially-motivated’.
Mr Stott said: ‘It’s racist in its content, some of the people are black and brown, at least one dressed in Islamic female dress, and there is a comment about that figure, along the lines of “little ninja catching fire”, at the point where you can see that it’s that figure that’s caught fire.’
He called into evidence other racist messages shared by Bussetti, including one the accused sent to a group during the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge last year at which US preacher Bishop Michael Curry gave a sermon. Bussetti said: ‘N***** priest as well’.
Bussetti’s lawyer Mark Summers QC argued that while the bonfire incident was ‘hurtful distasteful, mocking [and] disgusting’ it was protected by the right to freedom of expression. Of the effigy, he said: ‘This was, whatever one thinks of it, an artistic effort. It was a model. It was satirical.’
Mr Summers also listed remarks made by Boris Johnson before he became prime minister which did not lead to prosecution, such as his referring to ‘cheering crowds of flag-waving piccaninnies, with watermelon smiles’.
Mr Summers also argued that an encrypted private WhatsApp chat cannot be considered a public network under the Communications Act 2003. But Chief Magistrate Emma Arbuthnot said she was satisfied there was a case to answer.
She adjourned the trial until August 22 when Bussetti is expected to give evidence.