14 DAY TRIAL // The boy who was charged in February with making a false bomb threat and starting the dangerous celebrity “trend” of swatting has admitted in court to being responsible for the Ashton Kutcher prank. The boy is only 12 years old.
He will be prosecuted as a juvenile, EntertainmentWise reports.
The boy was in court the other day to address charges – and he pled guilty.
“The Los Angeles County District Attorney confirmed the young boy was charged with making a false bomb threat and computer intrusion because he placed the call from a computer and will also be charged after making similar false calls regarding Justin Bieber,” the e-zine says.
Other celebrities swatted since then include Tom Cruise, Chris Brown and the Kardashians but, for the time being, his involvement in those cases has not been established.
In a statement to the press, police note that the practice of swatting (which involves calling in to report a serious crime and have a SWAT team descend upon a given address) is dangerous, and a shameless waste of resources and time.
“The comments of the call advised that there were individuals inside the location with guns and explosives, and that several people had been shot,” police say of the call that got the SWAT team to Ashton Kutcher’s Hollywood home.
“The swatting practice is extremely dangerous and places first responders and citizens in harm's way,” the statement further notes, as cited by the same media outlet.
The identity of the boy behind the first prank that set the “trend” has not been revealed to the press because he is a minor.
Neither Kutcher nor any other celebrity targeted in these swatting pranks ever addressed them publicly, except for the Kardashians, who took to Twitter to say whoever was behind them needed serious jail time to realize what they were doing wrong.