Man sent to prison after throwing drink can towards police at Weymouth protest

A 27-year-old man who threw a can of drink towards a row of police officers during a protest in Weymouth has been jailed for 12 months.

Eden Reboul, of Weymouth, admitted violent disorder after the demonstration in the Dorset seaside town on August 4.

Bournemouth Crown Court heard that the defendant had also accepted a conditional caution from police for an unconnected incident of unlawful violence later on the same day.

The court heard that Reboul, who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and depression, had not taken his medication on the day and had "got caught up" in the protest which he had not planned to attend.

He denied being a racist or understanding the immigration issues that motivated the protest, the court was told.

In a letter to the judge, Reboul said: "I am so very sorry for my stupid actions, I have never been so ashamed in my life."

He added: "It's been the biggest wake-up call in my life."

Explaining that only a custodial sentence was suitable, Judge Robert Pawson told him: "The incident resulted in serious fear, it caused reasonable disruption, it caused a substantial cost to the public purse and it resulted in an attack on a police officer.

"It's easy to mischaracterise your behaviour as just throwing an empty can but when you involved yourself with others in mass disorder, it's the conduct of the group taken together which is of central importance, whatever an individual's acts may be.

"It seems to me that there needs to be deterrent sentences. Deterrent sentences may be imposed where there is an element of prevailing criminality at a particular time.

"The behaviour you lent yourself to has no place in a society like ours, it strikes at the heart of all our freedoms.

"Violence in public rarely, if ever, changes minds, it does little more than feed resentment and resistance."

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