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Murdoch pie-thrower gets wordy

The man jailed for pieing Rupert Murdoch blogs and tweets from prison—and continues after he's released.

 

Fernando Alfonso III

IRL

Posted on Aug 16, 2011   Updated on Jun 3, 2021, 3:21 am CDT

The English comedian responsible for hitting media mogul Rupert Murdoch with a shaving-cream pie was released from jail Monday and wasted no time tweeting about his experience.

“Prison has given me a nasty cold,” tweeted Jonathan ​May-Bowles following his release. “If I die as a result, I’ll come back as a ghost and sue the bejusus out of them.”

On July 19, May-Bowles, a 26-year-old comedian, threw the pie at media mogul Rupert Murdoch during the 80-year-old’s testimony on the News of the World scandal.

May-Bowles was sentenced to six weeks in jail at Wandsworth Prison on Aug. 2 but had his sentence reduced to four weeks after an appeal, according to the Telegraph.

According to his official Twitter account, @JonnieMarbLes, May-Bowles was released from jail “on license.” In England, as in the U.S., prisoners can be released early “if there are exceptional circumstances which justify the prisoner’s release on compassionate grounds,” according to the English charity Unlock which helps inmates reintegrate into society following their release.

While behind bars, May-Bowles wrote two entries on his blog Anarch*ish where he talked about exercising in the yard, sharing his criminal past, slipping in the shower and generally mixing it up with the other inmates. The Guardian also wrote about his blog, which while being serious, has plenty of humor.

“If someone tries to come at you in here you gotta smack them up,” wrote May-Bowles, quoting his cellmate giving him advice. “People are going to come at you and you gotta show that you ain’t no dickhead.”

May-Bowles also expressed his frustration over the underfunded and understaffed English prison system, especially after the guards didn’t notify him of a phone call he had received.

“My problems, of course, are neither remarkable nor surprising. Wandsworth houses over 1,600 inmates and, like everything else, is suffering under the cuts,” he wrote. “That means fuck-ups and a penal system that does not keep to its already low standards. The daily frustrations must take their toll after a while. It’s no surprise people kick off.”

Tonight, May-Bowles plans on publishing the third post that he wrote while in jail, he said in a tweet to the Daily Dot.

In the meanwhile, fans can enjoy his tweets from the outside world.

“Before going inside I watched every episode of psychedelic ’60s sci-fi drama ‘The Prisoner‘ as research,” May-Bowles tweeted. “It didn’t help.”

 

Photo by internets_dairy’s

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*First Published: Aug 16, 2011, 3:09 pm CDT