Pink Floyd guitarist’s son imprisoned
By Phil ScullionFollow @PhilScullion
Charlie Gilmour, disgraced son of Pink Floyd guitarist Dave Gilmour, was jailed for 16 months today following his drug-fuelled role in last year's student fees protest.
Images of the Cambridge University student hanging from a union flag on the Cenotaph during the tuition fees demonstration caused widespread shock and revulsion.
He also leapt onto the bonnet of a Jaguar which formed part of the royal convoy.
The 21-year-old pleaded guilty in May to violent disorder and was today sentenced at Kingston-upon-Thames crown court and was told he would have to spend half the sentence behind bars.
Judge Nicholas Price QC accused Mr Gilmour of disrespecting the war dead, although he acknowledged that his clambering on the Cenotaph at Whitehall did not form part of the violent disorder.
He said: "Such outrageous and deeply offensive behaviour gives a clear indication of how out of control you were that day.
"It caused public outrage and understandably so."
Mr Gilmour had claimed not to know the significance of the Cenotaph as a war memorial.
However Judge Price refused to accept this excuse, saying: "For a young man of your intelligence and education and background to profess to not know what the Cenotaph represents defies belief.
"You have shown disrespect to those who gave the ultimate sacrifice, to those who fell defending this country."
The privileged youth was also part of the mob which attacked Oxford Street's Top Shop.
His father Dave Gilmour was present in court to see his adopted son, whose biological father is poet and playwright Heathcote Williams, sentenced.
The court was told that the student, who just completed his second year studying history at Girton College, Cambridge, had taken LSD and diazepam in the lead-up to the violence.
He claimed to have turned to drink and drugs as a result of being rejected by his biological father.
