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Man admits Salford Remembrance Sunday firework disruption | |
(about 3 hours later) | |
A man has admitted ruining a Remembrance Sunday event by setting off fireworks during a two-minute silence. | |
Stuart Potts, 38, let off two fireworks as hundreds of people observed the silence at 11:00 GMT at the cenotaph in Eccles, Salford, on Sunday. | |
Potts set off the fireworks while sitting on a ledge of a first-floor window in a nearby disused pub. | |
At Manchester Magistrates' Court, he admitted throwing a firework in public, and a public order offence. | |
Potts of Borough Road, Salford, who has 21 previous convictions, is due to be sentenced later. | |
The fireworks exploded above the cenotaph as the Last Post ended. | |
Beth Pilling, prosecuting, told the court the first resulted in loud bangs, and the second - a rocket - flew above the heads of the crowd gathered at the service. | |
The court heard a crowd of angry veterans gathered outside the pub window in Church Street shouting, "Get him out!" and tried to break the door of the pub down, with others attempted to climb up to the window. | |
When Potts appeared at the window to remonstrate with the crowd, a number of traffic cones were thrown at him before he was arrested and taken into custody. | |
The court heard a statement from an ex-Royal Marine who was at the event to place a cross on the cenotaph for a fallen comrade. | |
He said the loud bangs reminded him of combat and it had affected his post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). | |
It was the most disrespectful thing he had witnessed at such an event, he added. No injuries were reported. |