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Protesters Climbing War Memorials Could Face Jail And £1,000 Fine
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Isn't there already legislation to cover this ?
I remember Charlie Gilmore son of Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmore, being arrested and going to Court and fined for climbing the Cenotaph during student protests. That is about right.
Prisons should be for serious criminals not for idiots being disrespectful. We already spend £4Billion on imprisoning pleople, (£50K) per inmate. That could be spent on reducing NHS waiting lists or more police on our streets.
"I guess they have to say "could" until Parliament passes the Bill with this amendment."
They have to say "could" because all they are doing is setting a maximum penalty for the offence. It is up to the courts what penalty is imposed, subject to the sentencing guidelines. They will almost certainly not recommend a three month prison sentence for all those convicted and in fact are unlikely to recommend such a sentence at all, however serious the offence. Also bear in mind that anybody entering an early guilty plea to an offence in the (very) unlikely event that the maximum is considered will be entitled to a one third discount on their sentence, making the maximum two months. They will be released automatically after serving half of that sentence, so will be out in four weeks.
Charlie Gilmore did a lot more than climb on the Cenotaph and was convicted of Violent Disorder, for which the maximum sentence is five years.He was sentenced to sixteen months and was released under "Home Detention Curfew" after serving four months.
// Protesters climbing on war memorials could face up to three months in prison under plans being proposed by Home Secretary James Cleverly. //
// Charlie Gilmore wasn't fined for climbing the Cenotaph in 2011 - he was jailed for 16 months //
There is already legislation to deter these disrespectful idiots.
Probably just coincidence that the Government are wasting time on this a few months before a General Election. It gets a few headlines in the right fringe media.
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Charlie Gilmour, 21, was seen hanging from a union flag on the Cenotaph and later leaped on the bonnet of a Jaguar car forming part of the royal convoy taking the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall to the royal variety performance that was attacked by demonstrators. He also set fire to papers outside the supreme court in Parliament Square and was seen kicking at a window of a Topshop branch in Oxford Street and later carrying the leg of a mannequin. Students attacking the store caused £50,000 damage.
"NJ
Charlie Gilmore caused no damage and got 16 months.
Presumably if he commited the offence under Cleverley's legislation, he would would only get 3 months jail ?"
No, not quite right.
Mr Gilmore was convicted under s2 of the Public Order Act of "Violent Disorder." This offence is the second most serious covered by the Public Order Act (behind only a s1 offence of "Riot") and (again as I explained earlier) carries a maximum of five years' custody. Davebro provides some of the detail of Mr Gilmore's behaviour, above.
The Cenotaph episode was only a small part of his escapades that day and although, because of its nature, it attracted the most media attention, by itself would not have been an offence at all (as explained by the Met Police Commissioner in the link I provided).
Mr Cleverley's proposals aims at making such behaviour a specific offence.
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