The son of Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour has been warned he could face imprisonment after admitting going on the rampage at a student fees protest during which a vehicle carrying Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, was attacked.
The Gaurdian reports 21-year old Charlie Gilmour pleaded guilty Friday to violent disorder, but Kingston crown court heard he has yet to say whether he admits leaping on the hood of a car carrying royal protection officers escorting the couple to the Royal Variety Performance.
Charlie was granted conditional bail until July to allow him to complete his end-of-year Cambridge University exams, but the judge, Nicholas Price QC, warned him: "The fact that I am granting you bail is of no indication whatsoever that you will be dealt with in a non-custodial way. You must understand that your plea of guilty to violent disorder is a serious matter and it may be that the proper course would be one of immediate custody."
Gilmour, whose biological father is the poet and playwright Heathcote Williams, but who was adopted by the rock star when his mother, writer and journalist Polly Samson, remarried, was among thousands of people who protested in Trafalgar Square and Parliament Square on December 9.
He was photographed hanging from a union flag on the Cenotaph during the march, and issued an apology the day after describing it as a "moment of idiocy" and claiming he did not realize the Whitehall monument commemorated Britain's war dead. "I feel nothing but shame. My intention was not to attack or defile the Cenotaph. Running along with a crowd of people who had just been violently repelled by the police, I got caught up in the spirit of the moment," he said in a statement at the time.
The Girton College student, from Billingshurst, West Sussex, is accused of smashing a window at a high street store and throwing a rubbish bin at the royal convoy, which missed the royal couple but hit another car, it is alleged. Entering a non-specific plea of guilty, he is due to appear in court again on 8 July after the judge agreed to give his legal team time to decide the specifics of the plea.
Violent disorder carries a maximum jail sentence for five years. Requesting that the court date be put back, Gilmour's barrister, David Spens, said: "We feel it will be much better to be done when he's finished his exams, rather than when he's preparing for them."
As part of his bail conditions, Charlie is banned from the City of Westminster.
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