A man from Portsmouth ended up facing criminal charges after he pretended to be a ghost in a local cemetery. Anthony Stallard, 24, got into trouble when people saw him acting badly at Kingston cemetery in Portsmouth, Hampshire, and called the police on him.
According to The Gurdian, Stallard and his friends had been out drinking when they decided to visit the cemetery. Once they got there, things got out of hand pretty quickly as the group started playing football between the gravestones. People who saw what was happening were not happy about it and decided to report the group to police.
A spokesman from Hampshire police said that people who witnessed the event told officers they saw Stallard waving his arms around in the air and making “woooooo” sounds like he was trying to be a ghost. The witnesses said the whole group was being loud and causing a scene, but Stallard’s ghost act seemed to be what bothered them the most.
When pretending to be a ghost becomes a crime
Stallard had to go to Portsmouth magistrates court where he admitted he was guilty of using words or behavior that could upset or scare people. The judge gave him a $50 fine and made him pay $28 as a victim surcharge plus another $28 to cover costs. Those numbers might not sound like much money, but things got worse for him.
The judge also found out that Stallard already had a previous charge for harassing someone and was supposed to be on good behavior. Because of what he did at the cemetery, the court added three more months to his punishment from that earlier case. So his silly prank ended up having bigger problems than he probably thought it would.
The police originally wanted to charge Stallard with damaging the gravestones too, but that charge got dropped in the end. A spokeswoman from the Crown Prosecution Service confirmed what happened in court and said he was only found guilty of the public order offense.
What happened shows how something that seems like just messing around can turn into a real legal problem, especially when you do it somewhere people are supposed to show respect. Cemeteries are places where families go to remember people they loved who died, and when someone disturbs that peace, there are real punishments for it. While some people have reported unsettling experiences with supposedly haunted paintings, Stallard’s fake ghost show was very much a real person causing real problems.
For Stallard, who lives in Southsea, Hampshire, what probably started as something funny to do with his friends after drinking turned into a criminal record, having to pay money, and more time added to his earlier punishment. What happened to him is a good example of how even small acts of being disruptive in public can end up with you in court and having a permanent mark on your record. Unlike creepy artwork that allegedly caused nightmares, this situation had very real results in the form of fines and legal trouble.
