York student Frank Fernie was jailed for his part in the trouble that flared at the London protests in March. In his first full interview, he tells HAYDN LEWIS he believes he was harshly treated for a “moment of madness”.

THE sheer relief at being out of jail was etched on the face of Frank Fernie.

The 20-year-old student, jailed for violence during the London protests back in March, has been released early on curfew and was back at his home in Clifton, York.

As The Press reported yesterday, he was three months into his 12-month sentence after being jailed in July. He had admitted violent disorder in the confrontation outside luxury store Fortnum & Mason.

Recalling the day, Mr Fernie, of Filey Terrace, said he went to London on the bus with some friends with every intention of protesting peacefully.

He said they joined the main rally, but he soon saw posts on twitter on his phone that something was happening outside Fortnum & Mason in Piccadilly.

He said: “When we got there the police were already using kettling to control the crowd and a policeman came towards me in full riot gear with a baton. He was trying to get us to move back, but there was nowhere to go and he hit me on the top of my head. I fell back and felt totally dizzy and disorientated.

“We ended up trapped in a kettle of about 100 people for about half an hour and as the crowd surged I kept getting pushed to the front up against the police riot shields. I took quite a pummelling – I’d been hit in the face a couple of times by the shields as they tried to push us back. It was crazy, absolute mayhem.

“At this point people started to disperse and I picked up two sticks that had been thrown on the floor, they were no more than half a metre long and light weight, made from something like balsa wood. They’d been used for placards by protesters. I threw them over the top of the police. It was a moment of madness and they didn’t hit anybody.

“It didn't seem bad what I was doing compared with what was going on around me, there were people throwing bins and all sorts.”

Mr Fernie said he left at this point, as he had been separated from his friends and was worried about missing the bus back to York. He said he thought no more of the incident until weeks later when he saw his face in the paper caught on CCTV.

He said: “I handed myself into police because it was the right thing to do. I was really shocked and started to think over what had happened on the day.

“I think it was a stupid thing I did. At the end of the day I don’t agree with the way the police managed the situation, with kettling and excessive use of force, but at the same time it’s not something I should have done and it’s completely out of character for me.

“My involvement, however, was less than a minute. In court they showed half an hour of footage of the worst parts of the riot to give a flavour of the day, but it was a long way from the level of my involvement and they made an example of me unnecessarily.”

Frank said he was shocked and horrified by the length of the sentence and hated being in jail.

He said: “It was quite difficult to stay out of trouble in there, people tried to start fights and provoke you, but I managed to keep out of fights. I kept my head down and got on with it. But I’m just glad to be home.”

He said he had been touched by support from the Free Frank Fernie Campaign and his family and friends, and from dozens of letters he received in jail, from as far away as Belgium.

He said: “I’ve had an unbelievable amount of support and I can’t thank people enough. The letters I got – many from total strangers – helped get me through prison.”

The former Archbishop Holgate’s CE School and York College student said he now hoped to continue working part-time with disabled people, and had deferred his biomedical science degree at Sheffield Hallam University until next September.

Mr Fernie was still waiting to hear if his 12-month sentence would be reduced and said he was determined to continue his fight to have the term cut.