FAO Theresa May, Home Secretary:

Free Jonnie Marbles - Throwing pies is not a crime

Jonathan May-Bowles has been sentenced to 6 to 8 weeks in prison for throwing a foam pie at Rupert Murdoch.

The comedian and activist, also known as Jonnie Marbles, was convicted for assault and “causing harassment, alarm or distress” after he threw the polystrene plate covered in shaving foam at the end of the Commons Select Committee’s hearing into phone hacking at News International.

No-one was harmed or put in any physical danger. Murdoch had not wanted to press charges, but the court proceeded anyway.

District Judge Daphne Wickham, who sentenced Jonnie, is the same person who let Sgt Delroy Smellie off the hook for assaulting Nicola Fisher at the G20 protest where Ian Tomlinson was killed. Wickham ruled that Smellie’s behaviour was lawful despite clear video evidence of him striking Fisher with a baton.

Jonnie’s excessive sentence for a prank that hurt no one, committed by someone with no criminal record, against a man whose media empire has ruined lives, is yet more evidence of government crackdown on dissent. There are many people who should arguably be in jail for their role in the News International phone hacking affair, but Jonnie is not one of them.

We call for Jonnie to be released from prison immediately.

Initiated by Defend the Right to Protest.

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