‘Joe normal’ spectator denies public order charge after 100m bottle-throw

Spectator Ashley Gill-Webb, from Cornmill Court, South Milford, near Leeds, was bundled out of the Olympic Stadium by staff on Sunday.

Just before Usain Bolt sprinted to victory in 9.63 seconds, Gill-Webb is alleged to have hurled a plastic drink bottle which fell short of the runners and bounced onto the track behind them as they waited on the starter’s line.

The 34-year-old, understood to be a father-of-two working as a vending machine repair man, denied intentionally causing harassment, alarm or distress under section 4a of the Public Order Act when he appeared at Stratford Magistrates Court yesterday.

When he was tackled, Gill-Webb was pictured wearing a football training jacket emblazoned with the Queen of T’Owd Thatch Pub.

Christine Stobbart, landlady of the South Milford pub, said yesterday: “He’s just a soft-spoken quiet bloke. He’s not somebody that was ever loud, lairy or aggressive – just a joe normal.”

She added that Gill-Webb never played for the local team but helped them out in his own time.

Dutch judo bronze medallist Edith Bosch, who was sitting nearby when the bottle was thrown, said she angrily slapped the man responsible on the back.

When translated into English, a Twitter message posted in Dutch by Bosch, read: “A drunk guy threw a bottle on the track in front of me – I hit him.... Unbelievable! #angry #disrespectful.”

Locog chairman Lord Coe said it was “poetic justice” the man happened to be sitting next to the Dutch judo star.

He said: “Throwing a bottle onto the field of play is unacceptable. It’s not just unacceptable at an Olympic Games but at any sporting event and anybody who does that will be removed. There is zero tolerance for anything like that.”

Gill-Webb, who was granted bail on condition that he does not enter any Olympic venue, will face a half-day trial at Thames Courthouse on September 3.