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St James’ Park graffitied on Google Maps

SUNDERLAND fans are the chief suspects of a prank in which St James’ Park, the Newcastle United football stadium, was defaced on Google Maps.

Anyone looking for directions to the stadium using the map programme’s satellite function would have been surprised to see an unusual shape lingering above the stands on Friday night.

Superimposed on the satellite images, which enable users to see the stadium and surrounding roads as they really look, was an enormous phallic scrawl.

It appears the pranksters were able to graffiti the satellite image by tricking the function which draws opaque lines on top of the satellite image to mark where roads lie.

A non-existant route has been drawn leading from Barrak Road, adjacent to the stadium, directly over the Milburn and SIr John Hall stands on the west and north sides of the ground, and into the adjacent car park.

The programme therefore superimposes the new “road” - with its crude shape - directly above the stadium.

The graffiti is thought to have gone undiscovered by Google moderators for at least a week.

It is not known who is responsible for the practical joke, but likely suspects include fans of rival club Sunderland, and Newcastle supporters angry at owner Mike Ashley’s decision last season to officially rename the ground SportsDirect.com@StJames’ParkStadium, after his online retail business.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .