Beware of Facebook gatecrashers

Couple's £1.5m house trashed after hundreds of Facebook gatecrashers storm daughter's 16th birthday party

They had grown-ups to act as bouncers, a proper guest list, and a ban on alcohol.

So Georgie Hobday's parents thought they had her 16th birthday party under control.

Unfortunately, it was advertised on Facebook.

Around 400 yobs stormed into the family's £1.5million townhouse in Brighton on Saturday and gatecrashed the event.

Hundreds of yobs stormed into the £1.5million townhouse and gatecrashed the party after it was advertised on Facebook

They forced their way past the adults on duty and ran riot, smashing lightbulbs, tearing up the garden and leaving the carpets a filthy, sodden mess.

Twelve police cars had to be called in to send them on their way.

Among the troublemakers were the Facebook Republican Army, a group who scour social networking sites looking for teenage parties to crash.

Yesterday Georgie's parents Michael, a university professor and Sylvia Meli, an advertising executive, spoke of their horror at the damage.

They had gone out for the evening leaving the four adults in charge.

Miss Meli said: 'It was an absolute horror show. I will never have a party for my daughter here again. She had no idea who most of the people were and they were rampaging through the house.

'The garden has been ruined, the grass is just mud, people were walking through the pond and I heard one boy was trying to headbutt a mirror. My front garden was full and some people were climbing up the balcony and trying to get in through the windows.

'My floor was blackened with dirt left from shoes and there were cigarette burn marks around the bottom of the door.

'People had taken out light bulbs and just stamped on them. They knocked over plants and smashed my garden shed.

'When I left there was no alcohol in the house but when I came back there were beer cans and vodka bottles everywhere.'

Georgina, known as Georgie, turns 16 later this week and organised the party with two friends.

The privately educated youngster is studying for her GCSEs at £8,394-a-year Brighton and Hove High, an independent day school for girls aged three to 18.

Georgie is a fan of the MTV series My Super Sweet 16, which documents the birthday preparations of wealthy teenagers, and she wanted to celebrate on a grand scale.

Her mother said they had originally looked at the option of booking a nightclub, but decided the £1,000 fee was too steep.

She said: 'It seemed that realistically the only place Georgina could have her party was at home.'

The party-goers trashed the garden shed

The 100 genuine guests began arriving at the party at 9.30pm. Within hours, officers called Georgie's parents and asked them to come home. The couple returned to chaos.

Miss Meli said: 'I think Facebook is a major cause, as well as texting. I heard that a Bluetooth alert was going round saying "hot party close to the Seven Dials".'

A gatecrasher who did not want to be named said the ringleaders of called themselves the Facebook Republican Army, a gang of yobs from the tough Whitehawk housing estate in Brighton.

He said: 'This is just the kind of party they like to gatecrash. They're in their late teens and early 20s and they are quite intimidating.

'When they turn up at a teenage party they know that no one will dare say anything to them so they can just barge in and do what they want.

'Once they've found a party they put the word out through texts and news spreads fast.'

A Sussex police spokesman said: 'There was a sea of people, the place was overrun and it was difficult to move, which was a major safety problem that required a lot of police time and resources.'

Mrs Meli added: 'I do understand that at that age they have nowhere to go because they can't go to clubs, but invading someone else's party and wasting police time and money is not the answer.'

The online predators coming to a party near you

Georgina Hobday is not the first teenager to have her party ruined by the Facebook Republican Army. The gang claim to have gatecrashed dozens of events across the country after seeing them advertised by youngsters on websites such as Facebook, MySpace and Bebo.

The group is made up of about 40 youths from the tough Whitehawk estate in Brighton.

They even have their own coach and driver to ferry them around. Last night, plumber Steve O'Brien, 25, admitted that he and his brother Shaun, 24, were among the ringleaders.

He said: 'We started off just going to parties that were local, but now we go all over the country. We all chipped in and bought a coach and we pay a bloke £500 to be our designated driver for the weekend so we can all get off our heads.

'We've also got mates in London, Devon and other parts of the country who tip us off about parties in their area.
'Sometimes people just invite us in and we have a good time. We don't intend to cause trouble, but it kicks off sometimes. If we've travelled 200 miles for a party we're not going to just walk away.'

One party the gang infiltrated, held in March by 15-year-old Gemma Johnson at her parents' home in Worthing, West Sussex, descended into a drug-fuelled orgy.

More than £5,000 of damage was caused and the family's pet dog was left comatose after apparently swallowing ecstasy tablets.