Jobless teen laughs off £90 fine after being first ‘killer clown’ to be convicted over sick craze
SNEERING Connor Jones laughed off a £90 fine after becoming the first to be convicted in the UK for terrorising people while dressed as a killer clown.
Jones yesterday insisted he had done nothing wrong.
He added: “I know some people don’t like it and I get that. But, come on, there’s nothing wrong with having a laugh is there?
“I only had the outfit for a day. None of my mates have got the clown suits yet, just me.
“But now I'm getting lot of s*** on Facebook. People are calling me a paedo and saying that I want to kill people.
“I don’t care about all that because it’s all just rubbish.”
Jones said he decided to join in the craze that is sweeping Britain after starting in America when he heard about it a month ago.
He claimed he stood outside the school in Caerphilly, South Wales, on Friday merely intending to play a joke on his cousin.
He said: “It was just a joke which backfired. I never really meant to scare anyone.
“I bought the clown outfit on eBay for £28.50 just as a laugh because it is a big thing in America. Then I decided to wear it to meet my cousin after school on Friday just to see if she was scared.
“I was looking for her outside school. I didn’t want to frighten anyone else.”
Police in KENT said they had received reports of 59 clown- related incidents in three days.
They include clowns jumping out in front of vehicles, staring at members of the public, or children chasing other kids.
In NORWICH a 30-year-old man dressed as a clown was arrested after jumping out on a lone woman in a park.
A mum claims she gave birth prematurely after a teenage clown jumped out and scared her in LEICESTER.
The mum, who went into labour at eight months, and the baby are said to be doing well.
In PETERBOROUGH a clown was punched in the face by a man he tried to scare.
A man posted a video online showing him being confronted at night in PLYMOUTH by a clown armed with a hammer
In CHESTER-LE-STREET, Durham, a clown with a knife is said to have chased four children of 11 and 12 as they walked to school.
A school in INVERNESS has banned clown costumes from its Halloween disco after a killer clown was seen lurking in bushes.
Yesterday a mum told how she came face-to-face with a clown peering menacingly through a window into her home.
Sarah Lammie, 31, from WEST LOTHIAN, was walking upstairs to check on her baby daughter in bed when she heard someone tapping on the front door.
Sarah span round and saw the scary face peering through the window. She was able to take a picture before the prankster fled.
She said: “My partner Andrew had popped out and I was getting ready to go to bed.
“I had closed the blinds and went upstairs with the torch on my phone to guide me.
related stories
“But then I heard a tap on the door, thinking it was a neighbour, I rushed downstairs.
“What I saw nearly made me fall down face first. I was absolutely petrified.
“Thankfully my daughter was sleeping upstairs, if I’d been carrying her I could have dropped her. And if she’d come face to face with that monster she could have been traumatised.”
Groups of vigilante “clown hunters” are reported to be recruiting volunteers across the UK to carry out night patrols.
Patrols have already taken place in a number of areas where clown sightings have been recorded.
The Clown Hunter’s Facebook page says: “We are a group of normal guys who have a mission to stop these idiots dressed as clowns scaring people.”
They are asking anyone who spots a clown to make a citizens' arrest and call the police.
