Drunken Darth Vader Punished for Jedi Attack

Drunken Darth Vader Punished for Jedi Attack
Wednesday May 14, 2008


Life indeed imitates art, especially when Star Wars geeks start drinking.

Arwel Wynne Hughes, a 27-year-old, boozed-up Briton, dressed up like Darth Vader (with a garbage bag cape!) and attacked two members of group known as the Jedi Church.

To appreciate this story, consider how seriously the British are about George Lucas' space saga. In 2001, the United Kingdom listed Jedi as a religion with some 390,000 members -- about 0.7 percent of the population.

Prosecutors say Hughes jumped over the Jedi Church wall and whacked the men with a metal crutch, pretending it was a light saber.

In his defense, Hughes' lawyer says he couldn't remember the incident, having quaffed a 2 1/2-gallon (10-liter) box of wine beforehand and doesn't remember a thing.

A judge sentenced him to two months in jail but suspended the sentence for a year. Of course, in a true Jedi court, Hughes might have been frozen in carbonite and sold off to Jabba the Hutt.