‘Priceless’ wine guzzled in house party rampage

A young Frenchman has gone on trial for his part in a rampage at a private home during which he reportedly stole a bottle of Yquem.

The house party rampage occurred in the town of Sornéville near Nancy in June 2013 when the 15-year old son of the property owners used Facebook to invite some friends over for a party only for “ten times” the number of invitees to turn up.

The gatecrashers, teenagers at the time, proceeded to act in a “totally gratuitous fashion”, according to the property owners’ lawyer, Frédéric Berna.

Wine, jewellery and cigars were stolen, their furniture was thrown into the swimming pool, the walls sprayed with graffiti, doors torn off their hinges and chickens from the back garden placed in plastic bags and “kicked around like footballs”.

They are estimated to have caused €20,000 (£15,000) worth of damage, how much wine was stolen was not revealed.

Some of the gatecrashers including the young man now on trial were later seen, “guzzling Chateau d’Yquem straight out of the bottle at a (nearby) bus stop”.

He is now charged with theft and damage and faces up to three years in prison. Five other youths will receive their punishment from a children’s judge.

The havoc was likened to the 2012 American film ‘Project X’, in which three young boys invite some friends around for a house party only for the invitation to go viral leading to thousands of people turning up and trashing the house.

The film has been accused of inspiring many copycat cases in the US, where Project X-style parties have caused thousands of dollars worth of damage and even resulted in one teen being killed in a gunfight.