Nigel Farage milkshake attacker pleads guilty

LONDON — A woman who threw a milkshake over Reform UK Leader Nigel Farage has pled guilty to assault by beating and criminal damage.

Victoria Thomas Bowen, 25, hurled the drink in Farage’s face during the U.K, general election campaign in June as he left a Wetherspoons pub in the Essex town of Clacton. The Brexiteer was launching his successful candidacy to represent the constituency.

Thomas Bowen also caused £17.50 of damage to a jacket belonging to Mr Farage’s security officer James Woolfenden, Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard.

She previously denied the charges and was due to go on trial Monday but changed her pleas to guilty before proceedings began. Thomas Bowen has been granted unconditional bail ahead of her sentencing hearing on Dec. 16.

In a witness statement read out in court, and reported on by the BBC, Farage said “this incident caused me concern, as I have only been going about my job” and trying to “have as much public engagement as possible.”

He added: “I’m saddened that this has happened at a public campaign.”

The Reform UK leader was also pelted with coffee cups that same month while campaigning in Barnsley. The perpetrator of that attack was handed a suspended prison sentence.

Since entering parliament, Farage has not held in-person constituency surgeries, a fixture of British politics. He has said he is not “allowing the public to flow through the door with their knives in their pockets.”