16 Months For Charlie Gilmour (Student Fees Demo)

[LemonDifficult]

I wasn't very sympathetic to the rioters but 16 months seems a long time to put someone this young away for. Ridiculous. He'll get the fright of his life in the first few weeks and then what? What's the point of all those extra months - at tax payers expense.

I guess he won't do the full term, but still. It seems crazy.

niceguy did Gilmour actually attack someone's car??

As to the Cenotaph, of course it isn't very edifying to see a young idiot disrespecting the dead but frankly, I suspect it happens to other war monuments every Friday night and I don't think that element of his rap merits a custodial sentence at all.

Sigh. It just amazes me that in this era of 'austerity' the same people who slag off the public sector for 'waste' are prepared to spend thousands banging up a young idiot who would probably gain more from some strictly-enforced community service.

I think it is harsh particularly given the sentences handed out to far more serious crimes.
being young, foolish and over excited in a crowd where emotions were running high things are bound to happen

I expect some other community type punishment would be more appropriate

'niceguy did Gilmour actually attack someone's car??'

Yes, he's on camera doing it.

ok fair enough I was just asking :D

yeah attacking a car is serious shit close to assault. But I still think your average career thug who'd done it would have got off with a caution or ASBO.

allegra, he definitely was part of the crowd around the car

he sat on the bonnet of one of the police cars, causing the driver to brake because he couldn't see (but he'd only have been doing about 2mph in the middle of a crowd anyway, wouldn't he?)

he possibly flung a dustbin towards one of the cars (someone did it, I don't think they can identify the person concerned, & he doesn't remember doing it)

he didn't "smash up a store" - the window was already broken & he took the leg off a mannequin.

he didn't "disrespect the dead" - he swung off a flag on the Cenotaph

None of which exactly tallies with niceguy's DM-esque description

throwing a dustbin and what would have happened if that dusbin had hit someone ? becuase it could of as bet did not look to see if they didb

hmm....sitting on the bonnet of a police car is not exactly the same as throwing yourself at a random vehicle, which the descriptions above had made me imagine.

tbh I think don't think 'disrespecting the dead' is actually an offence in the UK, so that should have nothing to do with it at all. Not nice but, let's face it, the dead probably do not care all that much about the actions of a drunk young idiot.
the more you hear about the details of this, the more it sounds like a massive judicial overreaction.

Ffs isnt' there a massive deficit to pay off??? :-D

Today I am ashamed of our justice system. This is not justice.

This is an attack on our right to protest, and on students. Another here

i agree human, the dustbin throwing is indeed dangerous behaviour and could have caused injury (depending on the type/heaviness of bin thrown!)

but still, as I've said, numerous examples of bin-throwing occur in every high street in the UK on Friday nights and you don't see those habitual thugs getting banged up for 16 months. Nor can the country afford to do so.

Better to get them doing some proper community service- a few hundred hours litter-clearing etc for every bin thrown should be a start. Then they're a benefit to the community during the punishment period rather than a massive waste of public money.

Definitely being made an example of, poor sod. Plenty of people get far lighter sentences for far worse crimes. I don't see that the judge had any moral right to sentence him more harshly because it was Chaz and Camilla's car - we are all supposed to be equal under the law. Why is it worse to give C&C a fright than anyone else?

The thing you lot are all Missing is that you have yo sentence according to guidelines. Case law and the aggravating factors couples with the fact that he was culpable and intentional in what he did means he has to go to prison.

You don't just make it up!

yeah, so where in the guidelines does it say 'and you get a bit extra if it's HRH'?

16 months is the minimum sentence for what he did then, Lorne?

LorneMower I think you linked earlier to average sentencing for this sort of thing....fair enough but so many cases would never have got to court in the first place. He's definitely being made an example of.

His biogical father is a wellknown poet called Heathcote Williams, for thos debating his parents' role. But David Gilmour has been his stepfather and Dad in absentia for a very long time.

His biological father sounds like a complete twat, from the reports today, Greythorne

Poor sod nothing plenty of other people manged to protest without resorting to behaving like a thug

Oh, FFS! He's 21. His father this, his mother that. Plenty of people have heinous upbringings and don't go thuggo.

Quick google suggests 16 months is what you get if you are thieving solicitor who launders drugs money (and makes at least £200k doing it - that they managed to find). Or an MP who stole tens of thousands of pounds of taxpayers' money in the expenses scandal. Or a lorry driver who causes a chain of crashes with multiple victims, some left permanently disabled.

Hardly comparable to throwing a bin lid and sitting on the bonnet of a slow-moving car, is it?

indeed edam!

Edam you know it's not as clear cut as that. Guilty please pre cons etc. Not one size fits all.

well quite lawnmower, and this 'ere punishment just doesnt' fit. It's an example made of a posh boy who's been naughty and turned against the establishment. Which is not on.

soory Lornemower...it's late...