‘Please sir, I want a cup of tea’
A former public schoolboy who asked to be served a cup of tea in court was jailed today for breaching a restraining order banning him from contacting his own parents.
Classical guitarist Piers Fairweather Edmondson, 32, who plays at the Savoy Hotel on the Strand, was also found drunkenly wandering around Victoria Station on April 24 this year.
And two weeks earlier Edmondson had swiped a £250 electronic toothbrush from Boots, Croydon Magistrates’ Court heard.
He breached the order preventing him contacting his mother and father or going within 200 metres of their house imposed by South East Surrey Magistrates’ Court on April 29.
Edmondson was sitting in the dock waiting to be sentenced when he turned to an usher and asked: ‘Any chance of a cup of tea?’
The court heard how he went his parent’s six bedroom £2.75million house Crabbett Wood in Oxted, Surrey ‘extremely drunk’ and was told to leave.
But he was later found asleep in his car in the grounds.
On another occasion he rang his father and asked for £300, claiming he was being threatened by persons unknown.
‘On the 18th May he again attended the family address in the early hours of the morning only to leave and return a few hours later in a white Ford Fiesta,’ said Alex Slater prosecuting.
‘He asked for money from his family as he was being threatened by other parties.’
‘He asked for between £300 and £1,500.’
Edmondson stole the £249.99 Phillips Sonic Air toothbrush from Boots in the Whitgift Centre in Croydon.
‘He was observed by security and on CCTV taking the toothbrush valued at around £250,’ said Mr Slater.
‘After being brought back into the store he is described multiple witnesses as becoming violent and attempting to run away.’
‘That’s not true,’ interjected an agitated Edmonson from the dock.
‘This is bullshit, why are they doing this to me.’
‘I’m not a bad person.’
Magistrates Alison Cousins told him if he spoke again in court he would be removed.
After being a drunk nuisance and refusing to leave Victoria Station during rush hour Mr Slater said police officers had to remove him using ‘reasonable force.’
David Cowan, defending, said Edmondson’s father had received a threatening phone call about his son.
The unidentified person on the other end said: ‘Never mind who this is, he owes us money. If you don’t get it he will not walk away from this,’ said Mr Cowan.
The person who made the call has not been traced.
Mr Cowan said Edmondson wanted to turn his life around and was working at a soup kitchen with a church group in London.
‘He has been given a lot of talents and a lot of opportunity but he has not made the most of them,’ said Mr Cowan.
Edmondson, who gave his parents address as his parent’s home in Crabbett Wood, Itchingwood Common Road, Oxted in court admitted to stealing the toothbrush, harassment by breaching the terms of a restraining order and being drunk at Victoria Station.
He also admitted to two counts of failing to surrender for not showing at previous court dates at Westminster and Croydon Magistrates’ Courts.
Ms Cousins said that Edmondson had failed to comply with numerous court orders and alcohol and drug treatment plans imposed by the courts.
He failed to complete the last rehab order imposed on July 14.
When waiting for the sentences to be passed Edmondson, dressed in a blazer and shirt, asked:
But his demeanour rapidly changed when he saw three burly dock officers approaching.
‘I’m buggered,’ he said.
And as they closed he added: ‘Oh shit, oh shit.’
Sentencing Edmondson Ms Cousins said: ‘Beacause if your recent and constant breaches of any type of court order, these are so serious that only a custodial sentence is appropriate today.’
For the theft, the failure to surrender and the branch if the restraining order we imposed a prison sentence of ten weeks to run concurrently for each.’
‘There will be no further punishment for being drunk on the railway.’
He will serve half of his ten week sentence before being eligible to be released on licence minus two weeks he has already spent in custody so could be out in just over two weeks.
Edmondon must also pay £255 costs.
His father James Fairweather Edmondson, a retired solicitor specialising in trusts and wills, is head of the Halecat Charitable Trust based in Salisbury, Wilts.
Edmondson attended the prestigious King’s School in Canterbury, Kent.
Former pupils include playwright Christopher Marlowe, writers William Somerset Maugham and Michael Morpurgo, former British Army Field-Marshall Bernard Montgomery, former Labour Party advisor Jonathan Powell, former England cricket captain David Gower and TV chef Antony Worrall Thompson.
Later educated at King’s College London, achieving a 2:1 in War Studies and Philosophy and the Royal College of Music, Edmondson often quotes the bible and posts about his love of God on social media.
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