Olympic bottle thrower goes on trial
A man will stand trial in England today accused of a public order offence after a bottle was thrown at the start of the men’s Olympic 100m final.
Ashley Gill-Webb, 34, was arrested after the incident at London's Olympic Stadium in August, which led to Dutch world judo champion Edith Bosch intervening.
Gill-Webb, from South Milford, near Leeds, has pleaded not guilty to using threatening words or behaviour with intent to cause harassment, alarm or distress, as well as an alternative charge of using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour or disorderly behaviour within the hearing or sight of a person likely to be caused harassment, alarm or distress.
He will stand trial at Stratford Magistrates’ Court in east London.
At a previous hearing at Thames Magistrates’ Court in November, District Judge Jacqueline Comyns heard Gill-Webb received psychiatric treatment at Bootham Park Hospital in York after being sectioned under the Mental Health Act, but was released on September 7.
His defence solicitor, Thomas Barley, told the court: “It seems now that this is largely to be a case where the actual physical behaviour of Mr Gill-Webb is not going to be in dispute.”
Gill-Webb was previously granted conditional bail providing he stayed at his home address in South Milford or Bootham Park Hospital, except last night, when he was permitted to stay overnight with relatives in Church Crookham, Hampshire, before today’s trial.
