Paul Crowther pleads guilty to common assault for throwing drink during EU elections campaign

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A man who doused Nigel Farage with a milkshake has been ordered to pay the Brexit party leader’s suit-cleaning bill after what a judge described as an “act of crass stupidity”.

Paul Crowther, 32, hurled his £5.25 banana and salted caramel drink at Farage while the latter was campaigning in Newcastle before the European elections last month.

The married former Sky employee has been sacked and needed police protection after the high-profile “milkshaking” on 20 May, a court was told on Tuesday.

Appearing at North Shields magistrates court, Crowther pleaded guilty to common assault and causing criminal damage to a £239 lapel microphone on Farage’s suit.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Paul Crowther. Photograph: Owen Humphreys/PA

The district judge Bernard Begley ordered him to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work for the “act of crass stupidity”.

Crowther was told to pay £520, including £350 in compensation to Farage , for damaging his lapel microphone (£239), distress, inconvenience and suit cleaning. Within hours of the sentencing, an online fundraiser had raised more than £650 to help Crowther pay the legal bill.

Brian Hegarty, defending, said the act was not meant to cause “fear or harm” and that Crowther now regretted his actions: “The defendant has had cause to reflect and, having done so, he would say he wished he would not have acted as he did.”

Crowther was dismissed from his job and threats were made to a dog charity where he volunteered, the court heard.

Hegarty added that there was a tradition dating back “hundreds if not thousands of years” of throwing food aimed at embarrassing politicians, although the items may have changed from fish, to fruit, to eggs and on to milkshakes.

“As long as there have been demagogues there have been protesters,” he told the judge.

Crowther, who was arrested at the scene, said in the aftermath that the act was “a right of protest against people like him”.

James Long, prosecuting, described the act as a “politically motivated attack” and that Crowther supported remaining in the EU.

The court heard that Crowther wrote on Facebook moments earlier: “When you are walking back to the office with a milkshake and you bump into a Brexit party march.”

Long said: “I suppose for the split second the attack took place, Mr Farage would not know whether it was a harmless liquid or something, in this day and age, far more sinister.”

In an interview with police, Crowther said he “lost control” and that it was a “moment of madness,” the court heard.

A statement read to the court by Farage said he was “deeply embarrassed” by the incident, which followed milkshakes being thrown at the anti-Islam activist Tommy Robinson and Ukip’s Carl Benjamin during an often hot-tempered European election campaign.

He said it splashed all over him and in his face, leaving him embarrassed as it happened in full view of the public and media, and put an end to his campaigning in Newcastle.

In a victim statement, the politician added: “I am concerned because of the behaviour of individuals like this, the normal democratic process cannot continue in a lawful and peaceful manner.”

Chris Atkinson, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said he hoped the prosecution would act as “a deterrent to others considering any criminal form of political protest”.

“In an open democracy, people should be free to conduct legitimate political campaigns without fear of physical assault,” he said.

“While members of the public have the democratic right to engage in peaceful protest, it is wholly appropriate to bring charges in any case where such protests cross the line into criminal behaviour.”

• This article was amended on 19 June 2019 to clarify the elements which made up the £350 in compensation the defendant was ordered to pay to Farage.