The Hearing
James and Rupert Murdoch speak to the House Affairs Committee in July, 2011 Reuters

A man who attempted to throw foam in Rupert Murdoch's face has been jailed for six weeks.

Jonathan May-Bowles, 26, also known as Jonnie Marbles, pleaded guilty to assaulting Murdoch at the Culture, Media and Sport Committee meeting over the phone hacking scandal.

Speaking to London Student Newspaper recently, May-Bowles gave his reason for his actions.

He said: "It might sound silly to some people, but I saw it as a responsibility. Once you realise you can do something like this - and there aren't a lot of people who have the opportunity to - I felt that I had to do it because I knew there were lots of people out there who would have relished the chance. It was a bit of catharsis for everyone who's ever looked at the front page of The Sun and felt absolutely sick with the state of the world."

May-Bowles leapt at Murdoch after a path was made clear as people left the meeting room. Murdoch's Wife Wendy interjected, attacking May-Bowles.

May-Bowles will serve three weeks of his sentence and pay a £15 victim surcharge and £250 costs, said Daphne Wickham, District Judge at City of Westminster Magistrates' Court.

The judge condemned May-Bowles's actions. She said: "This is a parliamentary process, which as you know conducts itself with dignity and in a civilised fashion."

She added: "Everybody else in the room expected that, with one exception - you. You attended those proceedings with only one intention, to disrupt them."

Speaking to London Student Newspaper, May Bowles added: "I'm not a violent person, I wasn't going to hit him over the head with a brick. It was an opportunity to humiliate him a bit, bring him down to size. Pieing him in the face has this historic political tradition, going back nearly 100 years. In the 60s and 70s it gained a lot of traction again...it's a really effective political statement because it re-humanises people, and humiliates them; it says 'whoever you are, it you don't treat people with dignity and respect, you don't deserve to have those things yourself'."

London Rupert Murdoch