R
Red 2
Guest
Student pictured urinating on city cenotaph subject of police investigation
A student is at the centre of a police investigation after he was pictured urinating against a city cenopath during a university pub crawl.
By Andrew Hough
Published: 5:23PM BST 05 Oct 2010
The latest incident comes after Philip Laing, 19 from Macclesfield, avoided a jail sentence despite admitting urinating over a war memorial. Photo: PA
The student, who has not been named, was seen urinating on the Southampton memorial, a tribute to local servicemen from the area who died in the First and Second World Wars. The suspected drunk culprit was one more than 1,000 students who participated in the freshers' week event, which was organised by Carnage UK.
But his actions on Tuesday sparked outrage and a police investigation after pictures emerged of the act, which occurred last Thursday night. Catherine Kitchener, county manager for the Royal British Legion in Hampshire, said that in “hopefully, in hindsight, the student might feel some regret”. “It's today's society and it's different from societies gone past and it seems it is more acceptable to the younger generation to spill out on to the streets,” she said.
"I think it's quite sad, I would hope that students would embrace the idea that the memory of those who had made the ultimate sacrifice should always be treated with respect.” Royston Smith, leader of Southampton City Council, added: “This disgusting act cannot be tolerated and I completely condemn the behaviour of this individual.
"While I support young people having a good time in Southampton, I will not tolerate anyone who can show such blatant disrespect to our fallen heroes.” Inspector Phil Bates, of Hampshire Police, asked other participants to come forward to help the person involved. "The actions of the young person urinating on the cenotaph are unforgivable and we'd like to identify him so we can consider appropriate action,” he said.
He said local authorities were working with universities and the pub crawl operators to “to try and eradicate this sort of behaviour”. A spokesman for Varsity Leisure Group (VLG), which owns Carnage UK, said his organisation was “appalled to see that one individual treated a war memorial in a highly disrespectful manner”. "VLG has the greatest respect and admiration for all those who lost their lives in the defence of this country,” he said.
"The perpetrator of this despicable act will not be welcome at future events held by Carnage UK." Last year a student, Philip Laing, 19, from Macclesfield, Cheshire, avoided a jail sentence despite pleading guilty to outraging public decency after he was also photographed urinating over a war memorial.
Laing was one of 2,000 students who took part in Carnage UK, a seven hour drinking session through Sheffield city centre on Oct 11. Organisers of the pub crawl should have been prosecuted with him, District Judge Anthony Browne suggested. No arrests have been made in the latest incident.
