Man jailed after hurling wreaths from war memorial

A drunk man has been jailed after he vandalised wreaths laid at a town's cenotaph on Armistice Day to remember fallen soldiers. Ashwani Kumar, 54, downed most of a bottle of vodka before stumbling to the war memorial and hurling 50 poppy wreaths into the road. Kumar, who had been sleeping in a car park since his release from prison just 48 hours before the incident, told Salisbury Magistrates court he was ashamed of himself. CCTV shown to the court showed him slinging the wreaths up to 80m from the Swindon cenotaph at around 4.40am on Saturday morning. When he was picked up by police on Sunday, Kumar was asked by officers whether he hated British patriotism. “No, not at all,” he replied.