PROTEST: Darren Bill, who believed his attack on the council offices was justified.
VANDAL Darren Bill has been jailed for six months for causing £15,000 worth of damage to a council's headquarters and then posting a video of the paint attack on the internet.
Jobless Bill, aged 37, of Ashnell Road, Hartshill, was remorseless as Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court was shown the video of the attack on the night of May 12.
He told the court he had hurled paint at Stoke-on-Trent City Council's main offices at the Civic Centre, in Stoke, in protest at a £1,200 council tax bill and then posted the results on internet site YouTube, fully expecting to be caught.
Prosecutor Paul Spratt told the court: "Shortly after midnight, the defendant and two others attended the council offices.
"They had armed themselves with pots of paint and a mobile phone, with which they proposed to film their activities.
Click here!
"The plan was Bill would throw the paint. He did that and his actions were filmed.
"A certain amount of paint was splattered on the wall quite high, about 30ft off the ground.
"The film was then uploaded on to the computer. The council at that stage were aware of the damage but no one had been identified."
Mr Spratt said the city council had been left with a cleaning bill of £15,200, which would have to be funded at taxpayers' expense because building insurance wouldn't cover that type of damage.
The short YouTube film, entitled Stoke-on-Trent City Council Painted Up! shows Bill, a youth and another man, walking over Glebe Bridge towards the brightly lit council offices with the paint.
At one point the cameraman turns the camera round to show close-ups of all three grinning faces and says, "naughty, naughty, naughty".
It then shows Bill and the youth throwing paint over the building from Copeland Street.
The film was seen on YouTube by a council employee, and police were informed, who then arrested Bill.
Watch the video here(Caution this video contains swearing which may offend)
Mr Spratt told the court: "The defendant admitted it and said, 'I expected you were coming'."
Defending Bill, solicitor Guy Mathieson told the court: "It is difficult to mitigate, because this crime is fully justified, in Bill's view.
"He went to the council when he got into financial difficulty, he felt they were unwilling to help him.
"On top of that, he received a council tax bill for £1,200, which he felt was adding insult to injury. That's why this protest took place.
"He posted it on the internet to publicise it and made no attempt to cover his identity."
Sentencing Bill, Deputy Circuit Judge Peter Stretton said: "You have caused a considerable amount of damage that will have to be paid for by those who do pay their taxes."
3 comments. Last at: 09-Aug-2008 10:0
Something suggests that he didn't really think it through.
