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A Man Is On Trial for Farting in a Child's Face

What a fucking weirdo.

A 22-year-old man is currently on trial for farting in a child's face. Gary McKenzie claims his gassing in the kid's mouth was an accident, but the prosecution has described it as an act of bullying. He's also accused of punching the boy and trying to suffocate another child.

The victim alleged: "He pumped. He was right next to me and bending down, he was wearing shorts, his shorts were right next to my face. I said, 'Why did you do that?' and he said he did it because he wanted to be nasty."

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McKenzie allegedly put a pillow on another kid's face and sucked his eye, causing bruising – though says he was just playing. Prosecutor Paul Abrahams said: "It might be, at a rugby club, done to someone who had drunk ten pints and fallen asleep that one might think of this as horseplay. But this was a child at the time and was highly inappropriate."

McKenzie denies the allegations and the trial continues.

This isn't the only instance of supposed banter gone awry. Just last month a man was placed on the sex offenders register for pulling someone's trousers down in a pub. Paul Andrew Peggs of York will be on the register for five years for yanking at the 19-year-old's jeans in a pub smoking area.

"That sort of activity is deeply upsetting and deeply humiliating for that young man," said Paul Batty QC. "I do not consider it a prank. It was really rather more than that, and deeply distressing for the young man involved."

On the more righteous end of bad bants is Rian Bartwell, who, in 2015, washed a child's mouth out with soap after he spotted the kid trying to kick an elderly man's walking stick. Bartwell approached the six-year-old boy, who told him to "fuck off" and called him a "gay boy". The child – whose name is Alfi Forsyth – wasn't best pleased about this, so told his mother, who complained to the police. Bartwell got a fine of £100 and a 12-month conditional discharge.

More from VICE:

Calculating the Exact Amount of Banter in That Photo of Those Eton Schoolboys Who Met Putin

Banter: Some Important Lessons

A Tribute to the Impossibly Uncomfortable Banter of 'This Week'

(Photo: Todd McCann, via)