A high proportion of criminals who appear at court do all they can to avoid press photographers.
They will hide under umbrellas, pull their hoods over their face, hide behind a copy of the Metro, or just hurl abuse, flick the Vs and threaten violence. Not Elis Tarling.
The out-of-work mechanic, 21, appeared in court after he was caught carrying a knuckleduster at a retail park in Bristol. But it wasn’t his offensive weapon that got our attention – it was his behaviour for the cameras as he left the city’s magistrates’ court yesterday.
He revelled in the press attention and certainly seemed ready for his 15 minutes of fame, adopting an array of poses, pouting and smiling for the camera. Donning a pair of blue jeans, and sporting a black t-shirt and North Face jacket, he confidently flaunted his assets as he turned the walk of shame into his own personal catwalk.
The court heard that when his lawyer asked him about the knuckle duster Tarling, who was convicted of beating someone up last month, replied saying ‘I’m a happy drunk. I’m not that sort of person’.
The solicitor added that he is ‘relying on the bank of mum at the moment, but looking for work’.
He was stopped on the night of February 1 at Avonmeads Retail Park and arrested for criminal damage and during a search police found the knuckle duster in his jacket pocket. He claimed to have found it and picked it up.
He was given a £175 fine, told to carry out 120 hours of community service and the knuckle duster will be destroyed.
