CRUMLIN Road Gaol has promised to take “robust action” after complaints that an actor greeting visitors for a Halloween tour made jokes about Jimmy Savile, Jeffrey Epstein and Hamas.
Reported in the Belfast Telegraph, a visitor said the alleged incident took place during a Halloween Jail of Horror event on Friday.
Advertised as appropriate for children over the age of 12, the visitor claimed the actor had asked a child of around the age of 12 if they would rather share a jail cell with the paedophile Savile or the sex-offender Jeffrey Epstein.
They also said the actor made another joke relating to Hamas militants, who carried out a brutal slaughter and kidnapped civilians in southern Israel on October 7.
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Describing the incident, the visitor said: “He took a volunteer from the audience, which was a child — I’d say he was probably about 12. He definitely wasn’t like an older teenager.
“So he took the child and he had a rope — like a noose — so he put a noose round the child’s neck.
“He brought him over to the cells in the jail. This was in front of the crowd, so there were probably about 20 people there, and he said that the child had to pick between Jimmy Savile or Epstein, who were waiting in their cells.”
She added: “I was with my sister and we just looked at each other in shock. Then I looked around the room and everyone seemed to be doing the same thing, no one laughed or anything,” she said.
Calling the comments relating to Hamas as particularly insensitive, given the events of this month, she said: “I definitely won’t be back. I 100% wouldn’t go back for any event, and I have been for the past few years but that completely put me off.”
A representative from Crumlin Road Gaol is quoted as saying “robust action” will be taken over the matter.
The Irish News has also contacted the visitor attraction for further comment.
