Cenotaph hooligan is son of Pink Floyd star: Cambridge history student in riot outrage says he didn't know what memorial stood for

The long-haired lout who defiled the Cenotaph is the son of millionaire Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour.
Charlie Gilmour, 21, was also in the baying mob that surrounded Prince Charles and Camilla.
He issued a grovelling apology to the nation last night after swinging from the Union Flag on the Cenotaph.

Desecration: Gilmour scrambles up the side of the Cenotaph during yesterday's protests

'Deeply sorry': Gilmour, who was privately educated, is pictured swinging from a Union Jack flag on the side of the Cenotaph

Enlarge  

The tweet from Gilmour's mother, Polly Samson. Earlier she wrote: 'Son in a mess after day at protests. Battered and bleeding with smashed phone'

Astonishingly, the Cambridge history student claimed he did not even know what the monument was, amid claims that he was high on LSD at the time of the violent rampage through London.
Gilmour confessed to the Mail: 'I woke up this morning feeling nothing but shame for what I did.
'I'm so ashamed of myself that I really want to curl up into a ball and die. It's awful and I'm very sorry.'
On a day of bitter recriminations after the tuition fees protest:
■ It was revealed that the Duchess of Cornwall was prodded in the ribs through an open window by an anarchist as she and Prince Charles were surrounded by a mob;
■ The decision to drive into the rioters in a Rolls-Royce limousine was described as 'stupid and reckless' by senior officers;
■ Protection officers were said to be seconds from pulling out their guns as the gang of thugs 'bayed for blood';
■ Met Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson praised the restraint of armed officers, made a humiliating personal apology to the prince - but refused to offer his resignation.

Best behaviour: Charlie with his parents as the guitarist received the CBE at Buckingham Palace in 2003

Police had by last night made 33 arrests as a result of the disorder that left dozens of officers and protesters injured.
Those held did not include Charlie Gilmour.
A source close to his family revealed: 'He's been a really stupid boy. He's hoping the dust settles on the whole affair now he's apologised, but he was also part of the mob that surrounded Charles and Camilla.

More...

• Student has emergency brain surgery after 'being beaten around the head with police truncheon' during protest
• Nick Clegg faces revolt over leadership after failing to secure even a quarter of his own backbenchers
• 'Stupid and reckless blunder' which left Camilla cowering on car floor after being hit with stick by anarchist mob
• DOMINIC SANDBROOK: Peaceful protest is a right. But history tells us violence always loses

'As you can imagine, he's pretty worried.'
Gilmour did not deny being there, but said: 'I had no part in the destruction of Prince Charles's car. I have no further comment to make.'

At Regent Street: Gilmour, circled, near where the Royal car containing Prince Charles and Camilla was attacked

Defiant: Gilmour angrily brandishes a flag as police officers try to maintain order during the afternoon demonstration in Westminster

Unlike impoverished students campaigning peacefully against the fees rise, Gilmour himself is unlikely to face money troubles since his father is estimated to be worth £78million, ranking 861st on the Sunday Times Rich List.
He was adopted by the musician when his mother, author and journalist Polly Samson, separated from his real father, the poet Heathcote Williams, and married the Pink Floyd star in 1994. They had three more children.
They recently bought a £3million, six-storey home in Hove and also own a mews house in London.

Protest: Charlie Gilmour during the demonstration in Parliament Square

Father: Pink Floyd guitarist Dave Gilmour in action

Gilmour's maternal grandmother, Esther Cheo Ying, was of Chinese descent and served as a major in Chairman Mao's Red Army - not renowned for its tolerance of protesters.
Last night a friend claimed the student had taken LSD - commonly known as 'acid' - during the demonstration in London.
The friend said: 'Charlie was on acid when he ripped the flag at the Cenotaph.
'He boasted about being on drugs on his Facebook afterwards but later took down the posts about acid.'
Last night, Gilmour issued a statement through his father's PR firm.
He said: 'I would like to express my deepest apologies for the terrible insult to the thousands of people who died bravely for our country that my actions represented.
'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.
'I did not realise that it was the Cenotaph and if I had, I certainly would not have done what I did.
'I feel additionally mortified that my moment of idiocy has distracted so much from the message yesterday's protest was trying to send out.
'Those who are commemorated by the Cenotaph died to protect the very freedoms that allow the people of Britain the right to protest and I feel deeply ashamed to have, although unintentionally and unknowingly, insulted the memory of them.
'Ignorance is the poorest of excuses but I am sincerely sorry.'
Despite his words of contrition, the Mail has discovered that this was not Gilmour's first offence.
Last month, he was captured on video snatching a policeman's helmet during protests against student fees in Cambridge.

At university: Gilmour pictured with a friend at Girton College, Cambridge

Long-haired Gilmour climbed on to a historic building, the university's Senate House, and reached over to a policeman holding back a baying crowd, swiping away his helmet to cheers from the mob.
Yesterday, legal experts said Gilmour could be prosecuted under the Public Order Act for threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour likely to cause a breach of the peace, on the basis that his act could have caused grave offence to war veterans.
Scotland Yard would not comment on whether police would arrest Gilmour or not, but confirmed that another youth, aged 19, had been arrested on suspicion of criminal damage at the Cenotaph.
On Thursday night, Gilmour's mother posted a message on her Twitter account saying: 'Son in a mess after day at protests. Battered and bleeding with smashed phone. Not making much sense. Am fearful.'
Then yesterday she posted another message admitting: 'I am as ashamed of him as he is of himself.'
There is a moving reference to the Cenotaph in one of Pink Floyd's songs, the poignant Southampton Docks.

Shame: Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour, with his wife Polly Samson and their son, Charlie, at Gilmour's 60th birthday celebration

And David Gilmour's former bandmate Roger Waters lost his father in the Second World War and has written about his loss extensively throughout his career, including in a number of Pink Floyd songs.
The song When The Tigers Broke Free chronicles an attack on the Royal Fusiliers by German Tiger tanks. The cover of Floyd's album The Final Cut features a poppy and four Second World War medal ribbons.
Yesterday Parliament Square was still being treated as a crime scene by police. The massive clear-up operation will cost taxpayers tens of thousands of pounds.
A Cambridge University spokesman said no action would be taken against Gilmour, a student at Girton College, because the incident happened 'outside term time'.

source
 http://www.dailymail.co.uk