"Harry Potter" Star Sentenced for Role in London Riots - East Idaho News
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“Harry Potter” Star Sentenced for Role in London Riots

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GETTY E 032012 JamieWaylett?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1332277762137SHAUN CURRY/AFP/Getty Images(LONDON) — Harry Potter actor Jamie Waylett has been sentenced to three years in prison, according to London’s Wood Green Crown Court.

Waylett, who played Draco Malfoy’s evil sidekick Vincent Crabbe in six of the Potter films, was arrested for participating in violent riots that occurred across England last summer.

Prosecutors said Waylett, 22, was part of a small gang that participated in the riots in north London Aug. 8. Judge Simon Carr found Waylett guilty Tuesday of violent disorder for which he received two years. Waylett was cleared of another charge of intending to destroy or damage property with a fire bomb he was holding, a representative of the Wood Green Crown Court told ABC News.

Waylett had previously admitted to swigging from a bottle of stolen champagne from a supermarket during the riots. He was captured by security cameras with a hood over his head accepting a bottle of champagne from a rioter who had just looted it, according to the BBC.

The actor received a two-year sentence for violent disorder and one year for handling stolen goods, to run concurrently, so he will serve no more than two years.

“You were pictured on a number of occasions with a bottle full of petrol with a rag as a wick,” Judge Carr said in court, according to the BBC. “I accept entirely the jury’s verdict that you did not throw or have any intention of throwing it but merely being in possession of it would have been terrifying to anyone who saw you.”

Waylett’s lawyer, Emily Dummatt, said during mitigation that Waylett had become a “withered actor by the age of 22,” the BBC reported.

“Although he had the good fortune to be in the Harry Potter films, it turned out to be not so good fortune,” Dummatt said.

This isn’t the first time the actor has gotten into trouble. He was arrested in April 2009 for growing 10 marijuana plants in his mother’s northwest London home, the BBC reported. Waylett pleaded guilty and was ordered to 120 hours of community service. The arrest led him to be cut from the last two Potter films.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

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