"Kingston Crown Court heard he had taken LSD and valium before the incident".

Would you like a copy of Atom Heart Mother to go with that, young sir?

I see he was given Time to sit his exams. Why didn't he go On The Run?

over-privileged and cossetted idiot right.

for the heart of the nick.

comfortablely numb now.

now takes on a wholly different meaning! Norks!

Throwing bins. Attacking the Royal Family. Taking drugs. Kids eh? Now where's my Daily Mail?

or will he claim that he don't need no segregation

I very much doubt he's going to have a Comfortable Bum for the next year or so.

is that he's at Cambridge studying history and he "didn't know the Cenotaph was a memorial to the war dead."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-13309662

That's remarkable in itself, but it also suggests he doesn't listen to his dad's record much: And gathered round the Cenotaph / They all agreed with hands on hearts / to sheath the sacrificial knives.

Pigs on B Wing

Pow R (cell) Bloc H..

grabs coat heads for the hills

Run Like Hell

...a bit cross with Josie Long on Twitter - I've just unfollowed her, actually - for retweeting a bunch of OUTRAGED comments on this imprisonment.

Regardless of how harsh or otherwise this punishment is, I reckon all the lefties who are OUTRAGED now would be first in line to cheer and shout "quite right too" if Gilmour had been a skinhead who'd smashed stuff up on some horrible right-wing march.

I say this as someone who's broadly lefty, incidentally.

I surprised you even followed her in the first place. She's a ludicrous woman.

his cellmate will be setting his controls for the heart of Charlie's bum?

If I can just ponder something between the gay jokes and the snobby that-rich-kid-got-his-just-desserts comments.

I wouldn't like to be seen to be condoning any of Charlie Gilmour's crimes, but is there a part of his story where because of who he is people have decided to really stick the knife into him. Plus there's the old debate: Is the point of prison to punish or reform. CG's had a media battering, so there's a punishment right there, plus he's made a decision in these crimes which might not ruin his life but will cast a long shadow. Is he reformed already? I could only make an educated guess that he would give everything to turn back the clock, and that he is unlikely to try anything like this again. Maybe I'm naive, but I think he got caught in a perfect storm of bad ideas and decisions.

Just wondering. Glenn Mulcairn Only got six months.

when claiming you were on LSD and Valium is regarded as some kind of mitigation.

The judge should have said "Oh, so you were on drugs as well? In that case, the sentence is increased to 2 years!"

I am surrised at some of the caustic the attitudes displayed here.

16 months for basically being a twat seems harsh when compared to other crimes that attract a similar tarrif. He didn't inflict violence on anyone, as far as I remember, invade anyone's home, verbally assault anyone except a few royals, or cause any damage to the Cenotaph. Plenty of people get less time for burglary or ABH. Am I missing something?

What I found galling was the report which stated that when he was being arrested, he screamed quotes from Shelley and Byron at the coppers: Subtext (for me at least) 'Unhand me, you plebian oiks, for I, as evidenced by my poetic erudition, am so much superior to you.'

You wanna be noticed kid?
You wanna be respected?

Go and work hard and become really good at something, like your old man did.

Oh, and Charlie, it IS true what they say about prison.
Happy trails.
Sorry, if that sounds insensitive, but I'm not even British and I have a deep respect for what the cenotaph represents and what Master Gilmour did was twattery of the lowest order.

others have already said it but - everything else about this story put to one side, can someone remind me why I should think anal rape is so funny ?

Isn't.

The average sentence for Assault Occasioning Actual Bodily Harm (ABH) was just over half* what this silly boy has been sentenced to. As far as I'm concerned this means that Charlie Gilmour's sentence IS disproportionate - or, put another way, unfair. And no, jokes about him getting buggered aren't in any way funny.

* 2003 figures, the most recent I could find

Can't see why prison is appropriate here. A good long stretch of community service would be much better. Doing the cleaning in a hospital for 6 months, for example. They all need a good scrub.

he'll be just another prick on the ward. Try the veal etc. He got such a rough deal from the courts cos he was a poster boy for that day with his amateur abseiling. As a warning to others as people have suggested. Least he'll have something 4 his cv when they ask what he did when he left uni.

He has plenty of time to consider what he should do to make amends and reflect on what he has done. I hope he does and comes out of it a better citizen.

in the death of a protester remains free. Charlie Gilmour certainly sounds like he's lived down to his christian name and deserves some form of punishment but he does seem to be have been treated pretty harshly. Unlike the policeman. Go figure...

...I feel like I've just stumbled onto the Daily Mail. So much fusty, self-righteous vitriol. Not sure why there is so much glee at seeing this guy put away.

A woman from Blackpool is arrested after she has sex on a cenotaph, then urinates on it, then fails to show up at court and goes on the run for seven months. When the long arm of the law finally tickles her collar the original sentence of 15 weeks is handed down. To be fair, this kind of thing is fairly normal in Blackpool, but it's an interesting comparison..

http://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/news/local/cenotaph_act_woman_jailed_1...

Ok, I know this is a bit Cameron-y U-turney, but what the heck. I'm replying to Spartacus above, who has provided new info. If it IS the case that CG, an adopted child, had been recently rejected by his birth father, then I feel I must retract what I said. I had thought that his behaviour was just born of a vile sense of entitlement. Now, despite not condoning it in ANY way, (The Cenotaph is a LOT more than a piece of rock) I now accept that there may have been something else at play that day.
Wealth doesn't stop a boy wanting to be loved by his dad.
I hope he gets through it ok.

And, in the meantime, he occupies a cell which would be better occupied by some other scrote from whom the public needs a little protection.

Mind you, Otis Ferry received similar treatment a while back, spending four months being held on remand on fairly spurious charges.

Perhaps it might be wisest, if you're a trustafarian ex-public school type who happens to be the son of a rock star, to keep your head down and keep your protests limited to those directed at the maitre d'hotel in the Cap D'Antibes when the white peach puree in your bellini isn't freshly-pressed. And is that Krug, like we asked? Are you sure? Minty, Ludo AND Davinia all think it's Prosecco..

And do so very quietly.

And make sure you've changed the PIN on your answerphone as well.

That might explain the unleashing of people's inner Daily Mail reader...

I agree that the majority of people posting on this topic would be at home on the letters page of the Daily Mail or Telegraph. I didn't realise so many retired colonels living in the Home Counties were Word readers.

Lets put things in context. Firstly, Otis Ferry is not a good comparison. He has not received anything like the same punishment for his numerous illegal activities which, by the way, have been aimed at breaking a legitimate law banning the so-called sport of fox-hunting.

Secondly, apart from a few bloggers, there has been little acknowledgement of the fact that Gilmour as well as the student convicted for throwing the fire extinguisher off the roof of Conservative Party HQ, were protesting against the dubious decision of Cameron, Clegg et al to raise university fees. Yes, both students behaved stupidly yet both were of good character and had not had any previous run-ins with the law. What is clear here is that the establishment is making an example of these kids and sending out a very clear message that protest is going to be met with the full force of the law. This, along with kettling, is aimed at putting young people off taking to the streets. It reminds me of the totally disproportionately prison sentences handed out to young Asians following the Bradford riots when kids again took to the streets after the appearance of a National Front march through their neighbourhood.

It would be good to think that the establishment and the law will take a similar approach to punishing the journalists and police officers involved in the hacking scandal. However, forgive me for my scepticism. It isn't going to happen!

nor indeed the disowned son of a (very troubled) poet, and I wasn't raised by two artistes who probably had difficulty balancing the needs of their creative urges with the needs of their (step)child. I was, however, in a long-term relationship with someone who was disowned by her biological parents, and the fallout, which goes on to this day, is catastrophic.
Having money thrown at him via education and so on may indeed have simply put further pressure on the young man: I seem to recall a lyric along the lines of 'we gave him (sic) everything money could buy'
My point is yes, of course punishment must be done, but let's have some humanity. I'll start rattling on about Prince Charles and Otis Ferry next...

From today's BBC Cornwall news pages (names tweaked by me):

"Ann Idiot, 20, from Rose Hill, St Blazey, crashed her Ford Ka car into Vic Tim, 16, who was riding a moped in Par, near St Austell in 2010.

Idiot admitted causing death by careless driving at an earlier hearing.

At Truro Crown Court she was given an 18-month driving ban, 18 hours unpaid work and ordered to pay £500. She must also pass an extended driving test."

Go figure, as I believe they say in the colonies.

simple as that - and though his behaviour was deeply silly and certainly disrespectful, the biggest danger he posed was to himself it seems to me.

Community service would have been the best and most obvious course of action. However, you can imagine the reaction, particularly in certain sections of the press, had he been given community service with precisely the opposite set of arguments being advanced. That, in fact, it was his "privileged" background that resulted in favourable treatment and a lenient sentence. The dyspeptic tone of the OP and of much of the subsequent comment hints at this strand of thinking.

Incidentally, I wonder if Heathcote Williams, who as a poet, presumably is concerned with the depths and nuances of human emotion, is feeling anything approaching remorse or even, heaven forfend, guilt?

and saddened by the vitriol and bile of certain posters in this thread.
Yes he certainly deserved punishment, but not to be 'made an example of'.
Sentencing should be seen to be both consistent and fair.

Sad to see such lazy thinking in reaction to my last post. So anybody who believes in equality and justice is a leftie. I was under the impression that I was merely expressing an anxiety that some kid got jailed for 16 months for taking part in a political protest. I also did not get a kick out of the fact that his experience of prison is likely to be extremely negative. Shame on you who posted glee at the thought that he might be raped in the showers. The fact is kids get up to this sort of shit all the time in my neighbourhood but the police rarely come out and deal with it because they haven't got the resources. When kids in my area are arrested and prosecuted, they get community service or ASBOs for stuff much more serious than swinging from the Cenotaph or throwing a dustbin. And by the way, does it really matter who was in the car? Does it really make it any more serious?

The fact is he got that sentence for one reason only - it was to send out the message that protests against this government's unacceptables policies and cuts will not be tolerated. What is sad about the reaction of many Word readers posting on this blog is that they think his accident of birth (yeh, he's privileged - so what! He didn't choose to be) make him somehow deserving of the punishment. One of the reasons I like posting on this site was my observation that Word readers were motivated by equality, justice, decency etc. I haven't seen a great deal of those qualities in the reaction to this very disproportionate sentence.

I am a bit terrified by the level of vindictiveness in the early part of this thread.

But maybe no one else spent a fair bit of the 70s and 80s dodging police horses and doing the Cleopatra's Needle/Park Lane/Whitehall circuits? Admittedly I never chucked any bins but perhaps I just wasn't young and foolish enough even then (or too chicken, who can say).

OK - so you don't read the Daily Mail but your comments certainly indicate a like-mind. I really don't get how you can not see how unfair this sentence was considering the litany of crimes you must read about in both the national and local papers which are punished far more leniently. The bottom line is that the harshness of this sentence is political. The thousands upon thousands of protesters you mention were also subjected to this political treatment in the form of kettling. Or do you think its acceptable for 11 and 12 year old school children to be forcibly kept in one spot for several hours without access to toilets, water etc. In an earlier demonstration, an innocent bystander - Ian Tomlinson - was killed by a police officer because he happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. I have no doubts that the police officer will probably receive a lesser sentence than Gilmour IF convicted.

Spartacus the slave stood up for the downtrodden and his fellow slaves stood up for him. What Spartacus didn't do was complain when someone swung off a Roman statue and allegedly threw a dustbin at one of the senators.

Would make a fantastic exclamation in some parody of Victorian literature.

"Mr Rhodes, I fear your young clerk might have been fiddling the takings."

"Good twat Barclay! I shall call the Constable at once and ensure his punishment is both swift and extreme."

I think the OP nailed it, sometimes less is more.

about being raped in prison etc, maybe one day those posters will have the misfortune to have friends or family members sent to jail, then perhaps it won't seem so funny.
totally uncalled for !!

Still, Diesel Park West were great, weren't they?

had indeed raised him, the young man would now be called Charlie Williams.

Makes a very good point in this piece:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jul/17/barbara-ellen-charli...

... The Daily Mail and the headline was "Let's All Hope Pink Floyd' Member's Son Gets Bummed In Prison" I'd be very offended. However a pun on a song title/lyric that alludes to this act I can live with, and I 'm pretty certain that we all know that anal rape isn't funny.

(*) Kid A appears only on threads where the Massive's collective goat has been got. ©Pencilsqueezer

http://www.defendeducation.co.uk/letter-from-dons-regarding-charlie-gilm...

I've had my mind changed on this. Reviewing the facts of the case, a custodial sentence of any length seems harsh, let alone a 16 month stretch.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2023056/Charlie-Gilmour-shares...