Student jailed for throwing fire extinguisher off roof in tuition fees riot

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12 April 2012

A sixth former who hurled a fire extinguisher from the seventh-floor roof of Millbank Tower during the tuition fee riots was sentenced to 32 months today.

Edward Woollard, 18, pleaded guilty to violent disorder at the protests in November when students and school children tried to storm Tory Party headquarters.

Woollard was filmed throwing the extinguisher which landed "terrifyingly close" to police below who were trying to hold back demonstrators.

Prosecutors told Southwark crown court that if an officer had not shouted a warning someone could have been killed. His defence insisted he had acted in a "moment of madness" and instantly regretted his "repulsive" crime.

Judge Geoffrey Rivlin, QC, said: "It is deeply regrettable, indeed a shocking thing, for a court to have to sentence a young man such as you to a substantial term of custody.

"The right of peaceful protest is a precious one. Those who abuse it and use the occasion to indulge in serious violence must expect a lengthy sentence of immediate custody."

Woollard's mother, Tania Garwood, 37, who had urged her son to give himself up, left court in tears. Yesterday she said her son deserved to be punished but insisted: "He is a loving, caring, gentle man." The judge told him: "I shall take into account in your favour the extraordinary and courageous conduct of your mother, which resulted in you giving yourself up to the police so quickly."

The judge also said he took into account the defendant's age, his guilty plea at the earliest opportunity and the fact that he had no previous convictions.

Woollard, who was told he will serve at least half his sentence, was sent to Feltham young offender institution.

Woollard, of Dibden Purlieu in Hampshire, had been studying English, sociology, history and religious studies at Brockenhurst College in the New Forest. He was due to take an A-level on Friday.

The judge said he had no doubt Woollard's main motivation was to create a sense of "disturbance, anarchy and anti-social behaviour, to bring attention to the political cause" he supported. He added: "If ever a case calls for a deterrent sentence, this is it."

He recognised Woollard's stable home life and the 30 people who wrote to the court praising his character. But the judge added: "The courts have a duty to provide the community with such protection from violence as they can. This means sending out a very clear message to anyone minded to behave in this way that an offence of this seriousness will not be tolerated."

In a police statement read to the court, Woollard apologised for his actions, saying: "When I was told I had potentially endangered people, I felt sick."

Recalling his behaviour that day, he said: "Someone partially emptied a fire extinguisher, I then took the fire extinguisher and I emptied the rest.

"When the extinguisher was emptied, I lobbed it to go into a gap in the crowd below. I was absolutely not intending that anyone in anyway would be hurt. Very soon afterwards, I realised it was something I should not have done. I regret bitterly what I did."

The university fees demo had been the first time he had gone to London without adult supervision.

Hossein Zahir, defending, said Woollard was passionate about the protest but had intended to be entirely peaceful. But Peter Zinner, prosecuting, told the court the police had been outnumbered and feared for their lives as the rioters stormed Millbank.

If it had not for one officer looking skywards and shouting a warning the fire extinguisher would almost certainly killed or maimed someone on the ground, he said.

There were gasps in court as a DVD compilation of TV clips from the riot scene showed the fire extinguisher being thrown then falling to the ground with a crash. Five days after the riot TV news bulletins showed the film and within two hours Woollard walked into his local police station to give himself up.

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