'TikTok prankster' Mizzy banned from social media and warned he could face jail
A notorious TikTok prankster has been banned from using social media and warned he could face prison.
Bacari-Bronze O'Garro, who goes by the name 'Mizzy' online, conducted a series of invasive and cruel pranks on innocent people that he shared on social media. The 19-year-old man, from Stoke Newington, East London, would break into people's homes and cars under the claims of being a prankster, shocking and scaring innocents before sharing the footage online.
In the dad-of-one's desperate attempts to keep the nation's attention on him he has escalated his immature and pathetic pranks, ending up in court a number of times. He also cycled around a Sainsbury's, abducted an elderly woman's dog, and was a nuisance in shops and libraries, seemingly enjoying the backlash and publicity he got from it.
Since then, he was charged with four breaches of his court-imposed Criminal Behaviour Order on May 24. The teenager is accused of having uploaded social media footage without the consent of people he was filming, in Tower Hamlets and Westfield shopping centre, Stratford in East London.
Then today, he appeared at Stratford Magistrates Court. He was due to stand trial on four counts of breaching a criminal behaviour order but his defence lawyer Paul Lennon tried to have proceedings delayed, claiming the teenager wouldn't have a fair trial.
Teen 'kept as slave, starved and beaten' sues adoptive parents and authoritiesBut District Judge Matthew Bone said he would not be left with “many alternatives” other than prison if he does not co-operate with probation officers before his pre-sentencing hearing. The judge said: "The offending is very significant here. In particular, the May 24 offence happened hours after receiving the order - I have said that is intentional and deliberate as it gets.
“I’ve found you guilty of two extremely serious offences, they are offences that attract a prison sentence. You need to fully understand the seriousness of your situation now."
Mr Lennon applied to adjourn the hearing after telling the court that O’Garro had been arrested on October 16 on suspicion of perverting the course of justice. O’Garro’s main witness in the case, who was due to give evidence today, was also arrested and both were released on bail under the condition that they do not contact each other “directly or indirectly”, Mr Lennon explained.
Without his evidence, Mr Lennon said, O’Garro would not be able to have a “fair trial”. He told the court: “It was hoped that the sole witness in his (O’Garro) favour would be able to attend court to provide evidence in support of the defence. That is no longer possible. Last week Mr O’Garro and his first and only witness were arrested on suspicion of perverting the course of justice.
"Both were released on bail with the condition not to contact each other directly or indirectly. Had he (the witness) not been arrested on a very serious allegation he would have been here to give evidence on behalf of Mr O’Garro. It was hoped as of yesterday that the matter would not be proceeded with. Instead, he (O’Garro) was bailed until January 2024.”
But the judge refused to delay proceedings and said the witnesses' unavailability was known before October 16. Judge Matthew Bone said: “I am not prepared to adjourn this case. The trial will proceed today.” O’Garro’s case was previously adjourned at the same court as he was accused of engaging in further “criminal activities”, according to a joint submission by prosecution and defence lawyers at a hearing in September.
At today's hearing, it was shown footage, shared on O’Garro’s Twitter account on the night of May 24 featuring him in Westfield shopping centre, Stratford, with people visible in the background, as he tells the camera: “The UK law is a joke.” Just 35 minutes later, at 10:50pm, a second video was uploaded titled “Sainsbury’s security are slow”, showing him riding an electric bike at speed through a Sainsbury’s store before breaking into the stock room and dodging staff.
He then fled the stock room, zooming down shopping aisles and at one point narrowly missing a woman and her baby in a pushchair. On May 26, two days later, a third video appeared on the account, titled, I Finally Got A Job, which showed O’Garro cycling through a job centre.
When staff attempted to stop him, he could be heard saying: “Oh, I can’t ride a bike here? I didn’t know.” O’Garro claimed that one of his friends, who had access to his login details, posted the videos on Twitter without his consent.
Other videos shared on O’Garro’s Snapchat account showed him grabbing hold of a schoolboy by his uniform and a second showing a man with dwarfism attacking him which O’Garro claimed were hoax videos made with their prior agreement.
Death fears for Emmerdale's Sarah as teen rushed to A&E after exposing secretIn May he was handed a two-year criminal behaviour order banning him from filming members of the public without their consent. According to the charges, he broke the order which banned him from: “uploading directly or indirectly any original video content on social media including Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok and YouTube without prior documented consent of the people in that content”.
Previously, he was fined £130 and made to pay £129 in court costs over an incident where he entered the cockpit of a train and touched the controls. He videoed himself and posted it with the caption "GTA VI in real life". In between some of his childish pranks, Mizzy had an interview with Piers Morgan where the TV heavyweight berated him.
He said: "You take a dog from an elderly woman, leapfrog over the top of an orthodox Jewish man standing at the side of the road minding his business, you go up to women in the street and say, 'do you want to die?'. A lot of the stuff that you do could have consequences far more serious but you don’t care do you, as long as you get a laugh?"
In response, Mizzy claimed he did care and even went as far as to say he had "remorse". Even his mum's spoken out against his little pranks. Speaking to The Mail, she said: "I've had enough. Even if he goes to the shop, he does his stupid little pranks. I don't like what he's doing — I'm not supporting him. He needs to find a job and sort himself out. That's what he needs to do. He's a very clued-up kid — he's very clued up. Bacari was very good at school. He has an education." O'Garro is due to be sentenced at Thames Magistrates’ Court on November 21.