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.
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