Jim Carrey apologises for using autistic teen's picture

LOS ANGELES: Funnyman Jim Carrey has apologised for using an autistic teenager's photo without permission in his recent anti-vaccine Twitter rants against California government.

On Tuesday, June 30, Carrey launched a series of Twitter rants expressing his disapproval of California's new policy requiring all school children in the state to get vaccinated.

One of the tweets included a photo of a teen with autism having a breakdown, implying that vaccine caused intellectual disorder. The boy turned out to be 14-year-old Alex Echols Carrey of Eugene, Ore.

The 53-year-old actor issued an apology on Thursday after Echol's family slammed him for using his picture without permission, reported Aceshowbiz.

I'd like to apologize to the Echols family and others for posting a pic of their kids w/o permission.I didn't mean to cause them distress.

— Jim Carrey (@JimCarrey) July 3, 2015

Earlier, when the family learned of the image, the ailing boy's mother tweeted the actor and asked him to delete the snap.

Carrey deleted the photo shortly after she wrote:

@JimCarrey Please remove this photo of my son. You do not have permission to use his image.

— Karen Echols (@karen_echols) July 2, 2015