Clutching bags of bananas and apples while shoving a Snickers bar into his mouth, Ed Matthews cut a curious figure as he made his way to court for the second time this year.
Wearing black skinny jeans, black trainers and a tasteless designer baseball cap, the dishevelled TikTok influencer looked some distance from the plush lifestyle he likes to project on social media.
But then there’s nothing plush about Basildon Magistrates’ Court and nothing at all fashionable about wearing an electronic ankle tag – the punishment he faced last week for breaking a community service order.
So, perhaps it was inevitable that Matthews, 23, would buy his way out of the humiliating tracker.
I can reveal that, last Wednesday, the Essex-born TikToker paid the court £2,000 in lieu of wearing it – amid speculation he feared an electronic tag and accompanying curfew would interfere with the nightly livestreams he broadcasts from a converted garage at his family’s £1.4 million mansion in leafy Ingatestone, Essex.
Matthews, best pals with controversial online influencer and misogynist HSTikkyTokky, first appeared in court back in the summer, pleading guilty to threatening behaviour and assault by beating.
Sentenced to a maximum of ten days of unpaid labour, he was hauled back before the Basildon bench when he failed to turn up for work.
But if Matthews’s thousands of fans are pleased that the night-time livestreams will continue, locals take a different view.
The Essex-born TikToker has paid the court £2,000 after he failed to turn up for unpaid community work
Matthews recently dated Elsa Rae, who appeared on Big Brother this year. They split in July amid allegations he cheated on her
They also say that life on their quiet street has turned into a reality-TV-meets-road-rage drama.
Residents claim carloads of spectators linger outside the house, apparently hoping to bait the self-styled bad boy into a confrontation for the cameras in an attempt to derail Matthews’s broadcasts.
Other neighbours, meanwhile, say takeaways are delivered to the house through the night. They also report seeing streams of mysterious women at the door.
Now, after months of digitally fuelled drama, rumours abound that the cocky streamer’s parents have put the house on the market, hoping for a private sale.
One fed-up local told me: ‘It’s like living next to a circus: the cars, noise and delivery drivers are constant. He’s got a whole studio in the garage and it never stops.’
Matthews, who boasts seven million likes and more than 300,000 followers on TikTok, first achieved notoriety by feuding with other social media stars and staging fights with them in the boxing ring.
He also has 363,000 followers on the live-streaming video-sharing platform Kick, where he records himself making vile comments about women.
The influencer first achieved notoriety by feuding with other social media stars and staging fights with them in the boxing ring
Matthews with friend Harrison Sullivan, more commonly known online as ‘HSTikkyTokky’
Matthews recently appeared on Danny Dyer’s Channel 4, How To Be A Man, where he was questioned about his views on toxic masculinity – something he has been accused of encouraging through his social media.
‘I had 800,000 followers at one point, but my old account got deleted for apparently bullying and harassment,’ he told Dyer.
‘But it was all business. I might have said a few misogynistic things, but so what?’
He has previously dated fellow TikToker Elsa Rae, 21, who appeared on Big Brother this year. They split up in July after four years together amid allegations he had cheated.
The platinum blonde from Essex has gained a minor online following of her own by claiming she has been able to communicate with dead people since the age of three.
Some critics have suggested that Matthews and friend ‘HSTikkyTokky’ – real name Harrison Sullivan – are ‘Poundland Andrew Tates’, a reference to the cult figure and notorious misogynist also known as the ‘king of toxic masculinity’.
It appears that Matthews and Sullivan seek to emulate Tate, 38, who encourages his largely male fan base to embrace machismo and extreme materialism.
Sullivan, 24, who claims to earn £20million annually, went on the run from Surrey Police last year after crashing a £230,000 McLaren in Virginia Water near Windsor, leaving a friend and fellow influencer, known as General G, at the scene with minor injuries.
He recently handed himself in to the police.
Outside Basildon Magistrates’ Court in the pouring rain, Matthews didn’t seem quite his normal, cocky self last week.
There have been no Instagram posts of sun-filled holidays or private jets in recent days.
Which, for his long suffering neighbours in Ingatestone, might be the first good news they’ve had in a while.
