Accrington bar Bees Knees sorry after posting 'disgusting joke' about Jay Slater and Euros 2024

Lancashire Post

A Lancashire pub has apologised after a ‘disgusting joke’ about missing teenager Jay Slater was posted to its Facebook page.  The distasteful ‘joke’ caused an uproar when it was shared by The Bees Knees in Blackburn Road, Accrington.

Transcript

00:00Hi, my name's Sam Quine, East Lancashire reporter for the Lancashire Post, and I'm

00:11here stood outside the Bees Knees in Accrington after the bar received backlash over a joke

00:17made about the missing Jay Slater. The bar, located on Blackburn Road, caused uproar after

00:23posting a picture to its Facebook page referring to the 19-year-old's disappearance last month.

00:30The apprentice bricklayer from Osseltwistle went missing after trying to return to his

00:34accommodation after attending a music festival. The picture shared by the Bees Knees showed

00:41a photo of Jay next to a picture of a football with the caption, both not coming home, in

00:47reference to England's performances at Euro 2024. People online have labelled the post

00:54disgusting, deeply offensive and highly sensitive, which has led to the post since being deleted.

01:01The Bees Knees issued an apology to customers on Monday explaining how the post had been

01:06made by an outsourced social media company called Affordable Social. A representative

01:12for the Bees Knees, Accrington has also donated £1,000 to the GoFundMe set up to help the

01:19search for Jay. A spokesperson for AJP Pubs, which manages the Bees Knees, Accrington,

01:26said a conversation between Bees Knees directors and Affordable Social has taken place in which

01:32we have decided to terminate our contract with immediate effect after not receiving

01:37an adequate explanation into how this happened. Affordable Social were challenged three months

01:43ago to improve our social media pages with light-hearted humour, good content and sports

01:48content. The post that was made onto the page was neither one of the above and was highly

01:56insensitive and deeply offensive. As a company, we are East Lancashire based with our head

02:02office in Blackburn. We fully understand the impact this news about Jay has had on the

02:06area. We all have our fingers crossed for his safe return to the UK. In a Facebook post,

02:13a spokesperson for Affordable Social said, we are deeply distressed by the post, which

02:19was removed minutes after being posted. The employer responsible for this post no longer

02:24works at Affordable Social. We sincerely apologise to everyone affected by this incident.

Category

Transcript

Recommended