Rooftop Pair Face Trial Over Criminal Damage, Affray & Assault

Saturday update: The pair were remanded in custody, pending a trial at a Crown Court. No pleas were entered. Despite reports, there is no indication it was a protest.

Original story published last night:

The two youths who caused a major disturbance and disruption in the Chester Street area yesterday have been charged and will appear before Llandudno magistrates in the morning.

Josh Hughes aged 19 and James Hayden aged 18, both from Wrexham, have been charged with criminal damage, affray, assault. Hayden is also being charged with burglary.

We believe there is only one court on Saturdays in North Wales, thus why they are not appearing in Wrexham.

The pair on the rooftop and entering into a building.

Our KFC Detail Goes Viral…

Our live coverage (viewable here) saw the highest readership so far for Wrexham.com – which reached a previous high with our snowmaggdon coverage in March.

One detail of the incident that we revealed first has since ‘gone viral’ both on and offline – that the rooftop pair were supplied with a KFC meal by the police. Several times around town today we heard people talking about it, and a standing joke for meals revolves around going on a roof and being fed by police.

This minor snippet of information was not officially confirmed as true, however several sources have confirmed to us fast food was supplied, plus staff at KFC mentioned police did pick up meals at a similar time, plus on a nine page thread on our Wrexham Forums someone posted a picture of a bargain bucket they found on the roof!

A picture of the famous KFC as left on the roof.

Such a minor detail has been picked up by local, regional and even national press. The Daily Mail is one of the most read ‘news’ websites on the internet, and has a large international audience as well as the UK readership.

The article on the Daily Mail website had 625 comments at the time of writing, which has the usual hyperbole. Our picks are below from UK based comments and further afield giving an insight to how those outside the area viewed the incident :

“Colonel Sanders would be turning in his grave” – justtellingithowitis, Coventry

“BRING BACK THE BIRCH!!!” – by ukip4me , Cardiff

“The police should have brought their parents there and publicly birched them in front of the vandals.” – BringBackHanging, Midland

“I would have lit a fire in each of the chimneys and left them there to choke” – fedup of judges, West Midlands

“They are lucky it wasn’t here in america,are police would shoot them off!” – Illbjammin, Pasadena CA.

“To be fair they were probably starving. Its in your human rights to be able to eat regardless so the police did the right thing I believe” – GazMan, Expat Australia.

“Buzz them with a helicopter. That vicious downdraft would’ve made them fall to their knees and beg.” – MoparMojo, Hong Kong

“Shoot the basta@#rds , and then jail the parents” – Biggsy, Perth Australia

“Thanks for the photo of the KFC shop and food DM. Up until today, I had no idea how either of them looked.” – Colin Thomas, Houston, United States

Bee from Plymouth was quite angry, and wrote this entirely in capital letters :

“YES TYPICAL STUPID ENGLISH IDEAS. THIS IS WHY THE COUNTRY HAS SO MANY YOBS. THE USA HAS IT RIGHT .PUNISHMENT REALLY IS DEALT OUT PROPERLY FOR THE CRIME. THEY DONT FUSS AROUND YOBS LIKE WE DO. THEY WOULD HAVE GOT THEM OFF THE ROOF THEY DONT STAND FOR MODDY CODDLING NONSENSE. KENTUCKY FRIED CHICKEN MY GOD IVE NO WORDS FOR THAT.”

For less, er, intense feedback you can read comments from people in Wrexham on the forums by clicking here.