Ed Matthews rocked up to Basildon Magistrates’ Court, clutching bags of bananas and apples, and wearing black skinny jeans and a tasteless designer baseball cap
A close friend of the British TikToker dubbed the “pound shop Andrew Tate” paid £2,000 to free himself of an electronic ankle tag, it is reported.
Ed Matthews, 23, feared the tag and accompanying curfew would interfere with his nightly livestreams he broadcasts from his family’s home, so he coughed up the money not to wear it. It was punishment handed out at court last week for breaking a community service order, which was imposed after Matthews admitted threatening behaviour and assault by beating in the summer.
Sentenced to a maximum of ten days of unpaid labour, Matthews was hauled back before JPs at Basildon Magistrates’ Court when he failed to turn up for the work. He was snapped last Wednesday arriving at court, clutching bags of bananas and apples, and wearing black skinny jeans and a tasteless designer baseball cap.
The TikTok influencer looked some distance from the plush lifestyle he likes to project on social media, in a similar manner to that of friend Harrison Sullivan, who we reported last week faces a lengthy jail term for dangerous driving and driving without insurance. The 24-year-old man, branded the “pound shop Andrew Tate”, had escaped justice in Spain for one year after the smash.
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Matthews last week paid the court £2,000 in lieu of wearing the electronic tag, and while this may please his thousands of fans eho enjoy his nighttime livestreams, locals in affluent Ingatestone, Essex, are less happy.
The boxing enthusiast lives at a £1.4million mansion there with his family, and broadcasts on social media in the garage. One neighbour on the quiet street told the Daily Mail: “It’s like living next to a circus: the cars, noise and delivery drivers are constant. He’s got a whole studio in the garage and it never stops.”
But Matthews’ venture saw him appear recently on Danny Dyer’s Channel 4, How To Be A Man. The influencer, who boasts seven million likes and more than 300,000 followers on TikTok, was questioned about his views on toxic masculinity – something he has been accused of encouraging through his social media.
He said: “I had 800,000 followers at one point, but my old account got deleted for apparently bullying and harassment. But it was all business. I might have said a few misogynistic things, but so what?”
His response echoed words said by Sullivan, whose jail term could be extended if he’s found guilty of glassing another man in the neck in a Spanish nightclub. Sullivan, of Brentwood, Essex, had in a previous interview with a reporter admitted he was “racist… a misogynist… homophobic,” and this was pounced upon by journalist who exposed the man in a damning documentary about toxic masculinity this year.
