A homeless man who damaged a £24million painting by one of Britain’s most celebrated artists while in the throes of a psychotic illness has been cleared of criminal damage by reason of insanity.
Keith Gregory, 63, left two deep slash marks in an X shape – measuring 100cm by 65cm – on The Morning Walk by Thomas Gainsborough when he attacked it with a drill bit in front of horrified art lovers browsing a collection of old masters on the afternoon of March 18 at London’s National Gallery.
Mr Gregory, of Kettering in Northamptonshire, caused more than £10,000 of damage before he was dragged away by security guards, shouting that he had just been released from prison and was going to trigger a bomb.
Homeless man Keith Gregory (above), 63, who damaged a £24m painting by Thomas Gainsborough – one of Britain’s most celebrated artists – while in the throes of a psychotic illness, has been cleared of criminal damage by reason of insanity
He told the arresting officer and members of staff that he could cover the cost of the damage as his father was Jimmy Gregory and once owned Queens Park Rangers.
The canvas was so robust that it did not tear, but the damage to the 232-year-old painting took 80 hours to repair.
Married Gregory, a father of five, had absconded from psychiatric care last November and was travelling around the country.
Larry Keith, from the National Gallery, said the slash marks could never be completely hidden and the painting had fallen in value.
Gregory, of Kettering, Northamptonshire, left two deep slash marks in an X shape – measuring 100cm by 65cm – on The Morning Walk (above) when he attacked it with a drill bit in front of horrified art lovers browsing a collection of old masters on the afternoon of March 18 at London’s National Gallery
Gregory pleaded not guilty to criminal damage by reason of insanity.
A jury at Southwark Crown Court took just over two hours to unanimously clear him of criminal damage.
Recorder Timothy Fancourt made a hospital order for Mr Gregory to return to a low security unit at Berrywood psychiatric hospital in Northampton where he has been receiving care since March 31.
The court heard from three psychologists on Tuesday who ‘unanimously agreed’ he had been suffering ‘severe symptoms’ of paranoid schizophrenia when he slashed the painting.
Mr Fancourt added: ‘The defendant has significantly improved in his mental health since that time but it is necessary for him to remain as a patient in hospital and to have continuing treatment.’
Earlier on Tuesday, Mr Fancourt advised the jury to consider whether ‘as a result of that disease it is more likely than not that he either did not know what he was doing when he slashed the painting or that he did not know that what he was doing was wrong’.
‘If he did not know what he was doing or he did not know what he was doing was wrong then you must find him not guilty by reason of insanity,’ he added.
The defendant, wearing a green polo neck T-shirt, stood at the back of courtroom as the panel cleared him.
The court heard he felt that people were ‘closing in’ on him when he went to the National Gallery, before damaging the artwork with a drill bit he had been using to remove tape from the cardboard boxes he was using to sleep in.
The court heard Gregory felt that people were ‘closing in’ on him when he went to the National Gallery (above), before damaging the artwork with a drill bit he had been using to remove tape from the cardboard boxes he was using to sleep in
Mr Gregory, who had spent four months travelling the UK and sleeping rough after absconding from a mental health unit, slashed the painting after hearing a voice which said ‘put a mark on the painting and your family will find you’.’
He was suffering paranoid delusions and auditory hallucinations, according to Steffan Davies, a psychologist who has been treating Mr Gregory since March 31.
The doctor said Mr Gregory thought he was being monitored by people with laptops and backpacks and that a chip had been implanted in him.
He also believed police were after him for the rape of 30 women, the court heard.
These ideas, Mr Davies said, he ‘absolutely believed’, adding that he was a man ‘with a perfectly good house, and wife, but because of his illness was homeless and travelling around the country for four months’.
Gregory denied and was cleared of one count of damaging property.
The names’s Hallett… William Hallett: Gainsborough painting with a Bond connection
The Morning Walk portrait, officially titled Mr and Mrs William Hallett, depicts a 21-year-old engaged couple enjoying a stroll in the countryside and is considered one of Gainsborough’s great masterpieces.
The work, painted in 1785, has been owned by the National Gallery for more than 60 years, having been bought for £30,000 in 1954.
The painting featured in 2012 James Bond film Skyfall (above), where it can be seen over actor Daniel Craig’s shoulder in a scene that shows a clandestine meeting between Bond and weapons expert Q, played by Ben Whishaw
It also featured in 2012 James Bond film Skyfall, where the painting can be seen over actor Daniel Craig’s shoulder in a scene that shows a clandestine meeting between Bond and weapon expert Q, played by Ben Whishaw.
In 2011, Gainsborough’s Portrait of Miss Read, Later Mrs William Villebois sold for £6.5million at Christie’s in London – the highest price paid for a work by the famous British artist.