Trenton Oldfield, who earlier this year caused the 158th Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race to be suspended by swimming into the path of the racing crews, is appearing in court this week, charged with causing a public nuisance.
The case, being held at London’s Isleworth Crown Court, is expected to last several days. Oldfield, who portrayed his actions as a protest against elitism, is pleading not guilty to the charge made against him.
The famous contest was halted for about 30 minutes in April, after Oldfield jumped into the Thames near Chiswick Pier and deliberately obstructed the two boats. The race ultimately ended in controversy, as the blade of one of the Oxford oarsmen was broken shortly after the race was resumed.
Oldfield, who was privately educated in Sydney before attending the London School of Economics, justified his actions at the time in an online post entitled ‘Elitism leads to tyranny’. In it, he called the Boat Race “an inconsequential backdrop for these elite educational institutions to demonstrate themselves”, describing the competition as “a public event, for and by elites”.
Referring to his own disruption of the race, he wrote, “This is a protest, an act of civil disobiedience, a methodology of refusing and resistance. This act has employed guerrilla tactics. I am swimming into the boats in the hope I can stop them from completing the race.”
The prosecutor in the present hearing, Mr Louis Mably, said of Oldfield’s actions, “What Mr Oldfield had done was in effect to force someone else to take responsibility to stop him from serious injury.”
To the claim that Oldfield’s actions constituted an anti-elitist protest, Mably said, ‘He replied that he was protesting about elitism. Exactly what he meant by that – who knows?”
The hearing continues.
