AIBU 6 months in prison for climbing the Shard is excessive?

[longwayoff]

And a waste of court time, prison officers time and an unnecessary squandering of public money all round. Let him out. Ridiculous.

The dreadful conviction rates and light sentencing for sex offences is a separate matter.

It’s not heroic to take risks that, should they come to pass, would endanger others.

Quote from the article...

So far, said King, he has accepted a book deal with HarperCollins, begun filming for a documentary about the event and has been in talks to host his own TV series – on top of interest from two brands who have asked him to promote their merchandise.

I wonder if he will lose all these deals now he has a record?

@PhonicTheHedgehog

He was jailed 'because he admitted being in contempt of court after disobeying injunctions about scaling the structure'.

In other words, he was ordered by a court not to climb the Shard and he did. So he was jailed. This isn't unusual for contempt of court cases.

To those saying it’s justified because he could have killed himself and used emergency services on something that’s his fault do you feel the same way about recreational drug users where something will occasionally go wrong?

I don't think the sentence is that absurd - he not only behaved in a reckless manner that endangered his life and potentially the lives of any rescuers needed but also broke an injunction that banned him from doing it.
Pranks like this also waste the time of already overstretched emergency services.

What is a joke is the lesser sentences for far more serious crimes.

Contempt of court is a pretty serious offence. It's about the status of our justice system in society. If we overlook that, then everything starts to fall apart very quickly. That's why the sentence is so severe, nothing to do with the action itself, or big business or whatever.

The Shard is located over a very busy railway station that sees thousands of people pass through every day. An object falling off it is almost guaranteed to hit a passerby causing death or serious injury.

I don't much care if he might kill himself, but there are several other considerations to take into account: the waste of resources of emergency services; encouraging copycat attempts amongst impressionable young people (I would bet the house that he intended to or did upload his climb on social media somewhere); risk of death or serious injury to innocent people; shutting down that portion of the rail network or access to and from the station causing massive disruption.

Don't forget that Guy's Hospital and cancer centre is right next to the Shard and it's very important to many people to maintain access to that area for non-work reasons!

Breaching a court order necessarily carries a high sentence as the court must have its decisions respected, in order to facilitate the proper functioning of the rule of law.

Honestly, the court order was made for good reason and breaching it should be taken very seriously. He knew what he was doing, or should have thought beyond a bit of selfish gratification and showing off.

Completely ridiculous. Our jails are already overflowing. For me, jail is for people who are a danger to society (ie violent criminals). For everyone else, we should be able to come up with more creative punishments.

That said, contempt of court DOES need to be treated seriously with a short jail sentence. I would have thought 28 days would have done it, though.

Seems reasonable to me. He will have used a lot of police and emergency resources, caused streets around a busy railway station to be closed and could have killed someone.

My abusive ex got 3 months and he was caught with a machete in public! YANBU, it’s very excessive and laughs in the face of victims that have suffered

It's not that this is excessive sentencing, it's tha sentences for other, more serious crimes are not severe enough.
This is designed as a deterrent, so that other silly buggers don't kill themselves (or others) scaling buildings.
Also the police and emergency services have more than enough to deal with, without having to waste resources on this sort of behaviour.

He didn't get six months for the climb it was for the clear and deliberate breach of a court order. I was shocked by his parents on GMTV no wonder he felt confident to ignore the court order. A fine would have meant nothing so hopefully a prison sentence will teach the entitled little shit some respect for laws and rules: something his parents have utterly failed to do.

How is this man inspirational? If he wants to climb there are loads of mountains out there.

It looks like because he has middle class parents they can fight his case and say he is a good boy from a nice family. Let him spend his time in a young offenders institution reflecting on what he did.

People die doing these stunts causing trauma to others and massive work for the emergency services.

It looks like he has got a book deal and TV show out of his stupidity.

I agree that compared to violent crimes that take up more resources to solve it does seem excessive. I imagine it's probably a deterrent under the assumption prison time will put off more would be building climbers than Saturday night pub brawlers.