Billy Ray Cyrus retweets picture of 'huge fan' Jimmy Savile in unfortunate Twitter prank

The country singer is seemingly yet to recognise the reshare as a mistake

Ella Alexander
Friday 03 October 2014 16:03 BST
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Billy Ray Cyrus has fallen victim to a Twitter prank that Donald Trump will no doubt relate to.

The country singer retweeted a request from a follower today, asking him to share a photograph of his grandfather who is a fan of the musician.

Unfortunately for Cyrus, the appeal was a joke and the pictured man was late prolific paedophile Jimmy Savile.

Even worse, the singer is seemingly oblivious to his error as the tweet is still live on his feed. Numerous social media users have pointed out the mistake, but he has yet to take action.

At the time of writing, Savile abused at least 500 victims, with the youngest allegedly just two years old, the NSPCC has reported. The most common age group for his victims was 13 to 15.

He also targeted hospital patients, ranging from five-year-old children to 75-year-old pensioners, including men, women, boys and girls. Abuse claims were made at 28 NHS hospitals, including Broadmoor psychiatric hospital, an investigation has found.

Investigators were given "macabre accounts" of Savile "acting unacceptably" with dead bodies in the mortuary at Leeds General Infirmary.

Donald Trump was on the receiving end of a similar joke earlier this week, when he retweeted a picture of infamous serial murderers Fred and Rose West after a Twitter user tricked him into thinking that the image was of his late parents.

The US business magnate did not react well and has consequently threatened to sue.

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