EXCLUSIVE – Inside the world of the Asda slappers: Internet ‘pranksters’ invaded supermarket while wearing Spider-Man and Little Red Riding Hood fancy dress costumes and attacked woman ‘for likes’ during lockdown – as thug is jailed for six years
- Josh McDonald was part of a gang of internet pranksters who stormed the store
- Dressed as fantasy characters, they then attacked Asda staff in July 2021
An internet ‘prankster’ who dressed as Spider-Man and brutally beat a female supermarket worker unconscious as part of a gang that caused carnage for social media ‘likes’ has been jailed alongside other members of his mob.
Thug Josh McDonald, 33, sickened hundreds of thousands online when a video emerged of his violent assault during a fancy-dress invasion of an Asda by self-proclaimed ‘influencers’ and amateur martial artists in July 2021.
McDonald’s gang of now-disgraced ‘superheroes’ included comedy character Ali-G, Batman and Little Red Riding Hood. There was also a one-legged amateur boxer who first dressed as Matt Lucas’ faux-disabled Andy from TV show Little Britain.
Together, they caused chaos, with black belt kick-boxing teacher and champion McDonald being caught on camera as he kicked and then punched defenceless Lauren Scott unconscious for social media infamy.
The supposed prank’s leader was George O’Boyle, 30, who was dressed as Ali G. He was recorded repeatedly threatening to punch staff as he led the crowd of his online ‘followers’, before then hitting a manager in the face up to 15 times.
Both, each of them a father of two, were yesterday jailed after admitting assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and violent disorder.
Pictured: George O’Boyle (left) and Josh McDonald (right), have been jailed for storming an Asda dressed as fantasy characters before attacking staff
McDonald kicking Lauren Scott in Asda in Clapham Junction, south-west London in an attack that sickened hundreds of thousands of people online
McDonald also admitted wounding with intent in an unrelated incident in which his smashed a glass over a man’s head – in Northampton town centre in daylight – then slashed him with a shard he picked up from the ground.
The horrifying ‘stunt’ was organised by the group which called themselves Live Madness Replays made up of wannabe social media stars.
READ MORE: Internet ‘pranksters’ who invaded Asda store during Covid and attacked woman while wearing Spider-Man, Ali G and Red Riding Hood fancy dress costumes are martial arts amateurs who answered social media ad ‘to cause chaos for likes’
The mob, several of whom were from the same martial arts club, were seen beating male and female members of Asda staff in the aisles and stock room before turning on terrified shoppers, some of whom were knocked to the ground.
The ringleaders had posted an advert online, welcoming all-comers, and saw a nun, a spaceman, a soldier and a human fly also turn up to cause carnage when lockdown restrictions remained in place. Three of the six suspects came to London from Northampton, the other three were from south-west and west London.
McDonald who trained at the Black Dragon Martial Arts Academy near his home in Northampton, had previously boasted online that he was a contender for the ‘Iska kickboxing world championship’ in 2016 in Stuttgart, Germany.
Now his dreams of sporting stardom are in tatters after he and four others admitted their involvement in the violent assault at Asda in Clapham Junction, south London, one evening in July 2021.
What had been billed as a fun stunt became ever more violent – with multiple Asda staff beaten with metal bars, punched, kicked, and left bloodied after the mob burst into the shop’s storeroom.
When supervisor Lauren Scott remonstrated with Sophie Roberts, 19, dressed as Little Red Riding Hood as she rampaged back on to the shop floor, the teenager – also a kickboxer and who trained at the same academy as McDonald – punched her in the face.
‘Red Riding Hood’ Sophie Roberts (pictured outside Kingston Crown Court), 19, of Northampton, pleaded guilty to ABH and public disorder involving threats of violence
George O’Boyle (pictured in yellow Ali G costume), repeatedly threatened to punch staff as he led the crowd of his online ‘followers’, similarly in costume, into the supermarket
As Miss Scott tried to defend herself, McDonald marched over in his Spider-Man costume and high-kicked and punched her unconscious, before proudly stalking off.
McDonald, of Northampton, was jailed for six years six months, and will be monitored for a further three years and six months because he is considered a danger to the public, ‘with problematic attitudes to masculinity’.
O’Boyle, of Surbiton, south-west London, who had told his followers online ‘supermarkets are my playground’, was jailed for two years and two months for being ‘a leader of the mayhem’.
His barrister Kerry Moore told the court in mitigation that the Asda riot was ‘an inconsiderate, juvenile, idiotic stunt, the aim to jokingly throw a party in the aisles that night’ and it had got out of hand.
Sophie Roberts, 20, McDonald’s step-daughter who was dressed as ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ and an unemployed mother of two from Northampton, is to be sentenced next month for hitting Ms Scott in the face, and threatening behaviour.
Rikki McKenzie, 36, of Northampton, who pretended to be Matt Lucas’s faux-disabled character Andy from TV show Little Britain, was given a suspended sentence for threatening behaviour.
The court heard the one-legged amateur boxer had used his wheelchair as a weapon before frustrated staff beat him with bags of ice and pulled him to the floor.
As staff struggled to force him unwillingly out of the shop, he fell from his wheelchair.
Disabled amateur boxer Rikki McKenzie, from Northampton, dressed up as Matt Lucas during the prank. He is pictured leaving Kingston Crown Court
McKenzie was first dressed as Matt Lucas’ faux-disabled ‘Andy’ from TV Little Britain – complete with ‘bald-wig’ – although at some point he switched it for Goldilocks plaits in the chaos (right)
Ms Scott was punched in the face by trained kickboxer Sophie Roberts (pictured), 19, who was dressed as Little Red Riding Hood
Roberts (pictured) dressed as Little Red Riding Hood. She was filmed while hitting Ms Scott in the face
Mark Pettigrew, 38, from west London, had joined the Asda mayhem dressed in uniform as ‘Army Man’, and was involved in an attack on two workers. He was not present in court, but the judge was told he admitted public disorder with violent threats.
O’Boyle’s girlfriend and mother of his two children, Katie Pickard, 31, from south London, had been dressed as a nun while Charlie Jay Sharp, 19, from Northampton, had gone to the supermarket as ‘Onesie Girl’ in a purple onesie.
‘Army man’ Mark Pettigrew, 38, from west London, was last month given a community sentence for public disorder.
O’Boyle had staged the event for his tens of thousands of followers online on TikTok and Instagram, and a whole mob turned up, including many in fancy dress.
A large number of the group were videoing the store invasion and live-streaming it straight on to the internet.
O’Boyle’s barrister Kerry Moore insisted at Kingston Crown court that he had simply planned ‘to have some fun for social media entertainment’.
Katie Pickard, of New Malden, leaves Kingston Crown Court. She pitched up at Asda as a nun (right in the fruit and veg aisle). Charges against her were dropped
Violence was threatened from the moment the mob entered the Clapham Junction Asda late in the evening in July 2021, with unemployed O’Boyle pressing his fist close to a frightened security guard’s face
The group entered a storeroom closed to the public, and violent mayhem ensued, with ‘Spider-Man’ battering several members of staff with a metal crutch until it bent – while ‘Ali G’ repeatedly pummelled a manager’s face.
Outside the store room, Roberts, 19, dressed as Little Red Riding Hood, hit Ms Scott in the face and tussled with her when the kick boxing champion strode over.
Without pause he kicked and punched the worker unconscious, leaving her with a fractured eye socket.
Jailing the ring-leaders, who had arrived at Asda in a stretch limousine, Judge Mark Bryant-Heron told McDonald: ‘You completely lost control, and attacked a woman, a member of staff in her workplace, and hit her in the face and drop-kicked her to the floor as she retreated from you.’
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