British man jailed for defacing queen's portrait


Save Story
Leer en español

Estimated read time: Less than a minute

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

LONDON (AP) - A fathers' rights activist has been sentenced to six months in jail for spraying purple paint across a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II in Westminster Abbey.

Tim Haries told jurors he defaced the royal portrait with the word "help" to highlight what he described as the "social catastrophe" of divorced fathers being denied access to their children.

Haries, who was dressed in a Superman suit, is a member of Fathers4Justice, a group that has carried out stunts on behalf of fathers who they claim have been prevented by the courts from seeing their children.

Judge Alistair McCreath told Haries on Wednesday that he had caused "deliberate and planned ... damage to a valuable item of property on public display, carried out as a publicity exercise."

(Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

Most recent Entertainment stories

STAY IN THE KNOW

Get informative articles and interesting stories delivered to your inbox weekly. Subscribe to the KSL.com Trending 5.
By subscribing, you acknowledge and agree to KSL.com's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

KSL Weather Forecast