Story Archive

Soccer Hooligans

Anthony Stallard, 24, was kicking a football (that’s a soccer ball, to Americans) around with a friend in a Portsmouth, U.K., cemetery. “While the football was going on they were shouting and this defendant was effectively singing loudly and being disrespectful in among the graves,” said prosecutor Tim Concannon. “He was throwing himself backwards, waving his arms about and going ‘wooooooo’. I’m assuming he was pretending to be a ghost.” Stallard was arrested and pled guilty to using threatening or abusive words, or behavior likely to cause distress. “He has accepted that his behavior, if it had been outside of a cemetery, would not have been inappropriate,” Stallard’s defense attorney Denise Saunders said. “But inside a cemetery while people are grieving for their loved ones it might be.” Stallard was charged 75 pounds (US$125) in fines and court costs. He also had three months added to a suspended sentence he was serving for assault. (MS/Edinburgh Scotsman) ...Which means if he screws up again, he’ll be haunting a jail cell.