June 20, 2013

Olympic bottle thrower on trial in London

BY: AP Staff Writer JANUARY 3, 2013 | MODIFIED: JANUARY 3, 2013 AT 3:02 PM
Leave a comment

LONDON (AP) — The trial has begun for a man who prosecutors say got into the stadium for the Olympic 100-meter final without a valid ticket before shouting at Usain Bolt and throwing a plastic bottle onto the track.

Ashley Gill-Webb's trial started Thursday in London near Olympic Stadium and five months after the race.

He is accused of using an old ticket to enter the stadium and then shouting at Bolt, "Usain I want you to lose. Usain you are bad." He added an obscenity and tossed a plastic beer bottle. Dutch judo athlete Edith Bosch then intervened and pushed Gill-Webb in the back.

Gill-Webb denies the charges. He is charged with intending to cause harassment, alarm or distress by threatening, abusive or disorderly behavior.

Bolt won the gold medal in 9.63 seconds.

"He was shouting specifically at Usain Bolt ... he repeated these taunts over and over, it went on and on for about two minutes," Bosch said in a statement read to the magistrates' court. "I was angry with what he had done, which was so disrespectful," she added.

The 34-year-old Gill-Webb denies the charges of intending to cause harassment, alarm or distress by using threatening, abusive or disorderly behavior, and using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behavior or disorderly behavior.

His lawyer said he cannot remember throwing the bottle because he was suffering from a manic episode at the time.

But prosecutors say the Leeds native knew what he was doing.

"He passed through several steps waving an old ticket in front of people to get past security and that was a deliberate act," prosecutor Neil King said. "He thought, 'I want to get into the Olympics and I will do it by waving this ticket and it worked'."

Since the incident, Gill-Webb has lost his job and is receiving psychiatric treatment.

The case was adjourned until next Friday.

View article comments Leave a comment

More from washingtonexaminer.com

From the Weekly Standard

  • June 17, 1953

    Today, speaking at the Brandenburg Gate, President Obama paid appropriate tribute to the brave East Germans who rebelled 60 years ago against Communist dictatorship:

    Read More...
  • Problems of the Second Generation

    The Boston Marathon bombings highlighted, once again, the challenges of assimilating Muslim youth. And while the onus of accountability ought not rest exclusively on Muslim Americans, it...

    Read More...
  • Release Osama Bin Laden’s Files on Taliban

    The Obama administration announced on Tuesday that it was moving forward with its attempt to negotiate with the Taliban, which has opened a long-awaited political office in Doha, Qatar. The...

    Read More...