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.
The distasteful ‘joke’ caused an uproar when it was shared by The Bees Knees in Blackburn Road, Accrington.
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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.