Pink Floyd star’s son jailed for 16 months
The son of Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour has been jailed for 16 months for going on the rampage at a student fees protest, where he told friends: “We’re going to break all the laws.”
Charlie Gilmour, a 21-year-old Cambridge student from Billingshurst, West Sussex, pleaded guilty to violent disorder in May after joining thousands demonstrating in London’s Trafalgar Square and Parliament Square.
During the march on 9 December he was photographed hanging from a Union flag on the Cenotaph, a stunt for which he has since apologised.
He appeared for sentencing at Kingston-upon-Thames Crown Court in south west London, accompanied by his rock star father and author mother Polly Samson, who watched proceedings from the public gallery.
It’s like 1789, the French Revolution. Everyone got kettled there, man – Charlie Gilmour
Their son appeared to cringe as the court was shown footage of his antics.
He was first caught on camera in Parliament Square at 1.40pm, waving a plastic bag containing food.
Here he was heard to shout: “‘Let them eat cake”, they said.
“We won’t eat cake, we’ll eat fire and ice and destruction because we’re angry, we’re ******* angry.”
In a second clip he said: “It’s like a return to the 80s. It’s almost even a return to ’68, even more than that. It’s like 1789, the French Revolution. Everyone got kettled there, man.””
Read more: Student protests
Other footage depicted the Cenotaph incident and showed him elsewhere waving a red flag on a pole and raising his scarf in an apparent attempt partially to hide his face.
Gilmour was thoroughly intoxicated – David Spens QC
Prosecutor Duncan Penny told the court that Gilmour had that evening leapt on to the bonnet of a Jaguar car driving up Regent Street in a royal convoy containing the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall.
The Jaguar carried royal protection officers accompanying Charles and Camilla as they were chauffeured to a Royal Variety Performance in a Rolls-Royce.
The total cost of the damage caused to the store by the mob Gilmour joined was more than £50,000, the court heard.
Gilmour was “thoroughly intoxicated” on the day of the protest, David Spens QC said.
Judge Nicholas Price QC added: “It was more than intoxication.”
Mr Spens said: “Up until Topshop, the worst of his behaviour was playing the fool, showing off, posing for the cameras. There is an abundance of evidence to indicate that is what he was doing.
It was more than intoxication – Judge Nicholas Price QC
“The weight of the evidence is he’s not exhibiting real violence.”
Gilmour was warned in May that he could face jail after pleading guilty. He was granted bail until July to give him time to complete university exams.
He issued an apology the day after the demonstrations, describing the incident at the Cenotaph as a “moment of idiocy”, and added that he did not realise the Whitehall monument commemorated Britain’s war dead.