Serial offender who punched a paramedic calls magistrate ‘mug’, and tells court he ‘needs a beer’ while secretly streaming his sentencing on Facebook Live
- Ashley Mathers, 39, of Essex, livestreamed his entire sentencing in January 2023
- He called the magistrate a ‘mug’ and said he was ‘bored’ and needed ‘a beer’
A thug called a magistrate a ‘mug’ and told the court he needed ‘a beer’ while secretly live-streaming his sentencing to Facebook.
Serial offender Ashley Mathers, 39, of Shoeburyness, Essex, was found guilty of punching a paramedic and assaulting a policeman last year.
Mathers live-streamed his entire sentencing to Facebook from the moment he walked into the courtroom at Southend Magistrates’ Court, Essex, on January 24 this year.
He muttered ‘oh you mug’ to the magistrate after being ordered to pay £100 each to the policeman and paramedic he assaulted.
Serial offender Ashley Mathers, 39, was found guilty of punching a paramedic and assaulting a policeman last year.
Mathers was then heard saying ‘oh great’ after he was handed a 16-week suspended sentence.
He added: ‘Oh can I go now? This is boring. I can’t pay. Can’t pay we’ll take it away, right? Can I go now? I need a beer. Get me out of here.’
Mathers also said he needed ‘to go back to bed’ and told the chairwoman of the bench his phone had run out of battery when questioned about its use.
But he kept his phone in his hand by telling court officials his pocket kept splitting open and secretly filmed the proceedings – breaking the 1925 Criminal Justice Act which bans the taking of photos and films inside courts.
He didn’t stop recording until he walked into a pub in Southend’s city centre to toast to his freedom.
At his sentencing on Jan 24 he covertly live-streamed the entire hearing to Facebook, breaking the law on filming in a courtroom.
Upon leaving the court, an official warned Mathers that filming court proceedings was a criminal offence.
‘It’s a criminal offence to record in court, apparently,’ Mathers remarked to a friend as he walked away.
A HM Courts and Tribunals Service spokesman said: ‘Filming in a courtroom is a criminal offence.
‘We have reported this matter to Facebook so they can remove the content.’
Ashley Mathers, left, and brother Kelvin, right, were banned from Colchester after clocking up 80 convictions between them during a decade of offending.
Ashley Mathers has clocked up dozens of convictions over a decade of offending.
In 2004 he was jailed for two years after barricading himself in his home in Stanway, Colchester, with his brother Kelvin during an 18-hour siege surrounded by armed police.
Mathers moved to Shoebury, Essex, after Colchester City Council banned him from the borough.
He was again before a crown court after taking an axe into Colchester’s Playhouse pub in November 2007.
A letter written to the Gazette in 2012 which details the Mathers’ plan to appeal their ban from Colchester
In 2012, he wrote a letter from his prison cell in Chelmsford, Essex, to the Colchester Gazette explaining his plan to appeal his ban from the borough of Colchester.
He wrote: ‘I am hoping to get back to Colchester as I have a brother Jason there and we get on well.’
Mathers was also given a two-year restraining order to stop contacting his brother Kelvin.
He now must undertake six months of alcohol treatment, a rehabilitation activity requirement and a one-year mental health course.
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