AN UXBRIDGE woman who started a petition against a YouTube video staging a pretend murder has received support from close to 199,000 people.

The YouTuber and former Big Brother contestant Sam Pepper posted a video showing the 'kidnapping' of two friends, with Sam Goldbach duck-taped to a chair and forced to watch Colby Brock being 'shot' at point blank range in the head.

It is only when an unharmed Mr Brock, who is in on the 'joke', gets up and unties a nearly inconsolable Mr Goldbach, that it is revealed to be a prank arranged by Mr Pepper.

Kaylee-Jade Davis, a 26-year-old student from Uxbridge, was so outraged by the stunt she started a petition calling for YouTube to deactivate Sam Pepper's channel, which gained almost 100,000 signatures within 24 hours.

But YouTube released a statement saying they were not removing the video from the site as it did not breach the community guidelines laid out for content creators.

Killing Best Friend Prank has been watched on YouTube nearly 8million times.

At the beginning of the video, Pepper laughs as he tells the camera: “Let’s see how he reacts to his best friend of five years being killed in front of him.”

Miss Davis, a blogger studying politics and sociology at Brunel University, said: “My reaction was pure horror. I could not believe someone could be so irresponsible and insensitive when this situation happens for real every day across the world.

“He decided that it was acceptable to fake a kidnapping and execution as a prank, just two weeks after the terrorist attacks in France, and when so many other atrocities are occurring.

“I did not, and still do not, understand why and how he thinks that content is appropriate or it could be considered funny or educational in any shape or form.”

She added: “I personally feel the video does violate their guidelines; two in particular regarding to harmful/dangerous content and violent content.

“I feel the content of the video could encourage younger viewers that it is acceptable to do this to their friends as a 'prank'. I also feel that the content is so extreme and violent, it was obviously going to be shocking.

“Sam Pepper, Sam and Colby must have had some idea how shocking it was, if not during filming, during the editing."

Mr Pepper is most known in the UK for his Big Brother appearance in 2010. He has become a notorious figure online, gaining more than 2million subscribers on YouTube and averaging a minimum 300,000 views per video.

The Hillingdon Times has tried to make contact with Mr Pepper.

Image courtesy of Sam Pepper via YouTube, with thanks