'Bare' hilarity as barrister translates teen slang texts

A courtroom descended into hysterical laughter as a barrister translated teenage defendants' slang for the judge, reports the Daily Mail.

The barrister was reading out text messages the defendants are said to have sent one another during shooting spree in Dagenham.

In one, the youngest defendant who is 16, wrote: "Hurry up I've got bare haters around me now."

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Prosecutor Mark Paltenghi – who is in his fifties – told the jury: "It means: 'Hurry up, I've got a lot of people who don't particularly like me here."

Another text message read: "Hurry up I've got a strap on me, this is bare bait".

Paltenghi told the jury: "We believe this means: 'Hurry up, I've got a gun on me, and this is really risky'."

The defendants, Scott Stokes, 20, his brother Jason, 18, Anne-Marie Madden, 25, and a 16-year-old who cannot be named for legal reasons, erupted into laughter as these translations were read out in court.

Jurors at Snaresbrook Crown Court joined the hilarity when judge Patricia Lees asked the defence barristers: "Do you agree with these translations?"

The court heard that the group fired an air rifle from the window of an orange Ford Fiesta and smashed or cracked the windows of at least three houses in Dagenham in December last year.

All four suspects deny three counts of affray, three of possession of a firearm and three alternatives of possession of an imitation firearm. They also deny three counts of possession of an imitation firearm in relation to the air gun. The trial continues.