A charity shop has installed a new mural in the spot where a notorious tagger sprayed a homophobic slogan which could land him a prison sentence.
Johnny Crew is due to be sentenced next week for spraying “Fuck Islam and LGBTQ+” on the wall of the Sussex Beacon in St James’s Street on 9 September.
The same night, he filmed himself spraying the same words on the wall of the YMCA in Old Steine and posted the clip on his Instagram page. He also tagged police property in New Road.
This week, the Sussex Beacon unveiled a mural of Elton John by local art collective The Postman, facing an existing artwork featuring Freddie Mercury.
The charity’s chief executive Rachel Brett said “The vandalism at our St James’s Street shop only strengthened our resolve to expand The Sussex Beacon’s services.
“We remain fully committed to developing a dedicated hospice for LGBTQ+ people, while continuing to provide specialist HIV care.
“We hope the murals of Freddie Mercury and Sir Elton John, two icons renowned for standing against stigma and inequality, will inspire everyone who visits our shop and the wider community beyond.”
Johnny Crew, whose real name is John McMillan, admitted three counts of criminal damage and three counts of religiously aggravated criminal damage at Brighton Magistrates Court on 10 October.
He is due to return to the same court on 19 December for sentencing.
He became well known in Brighton for spraying his CREW tag across the city. In 2023, he was given a conditional caution in return for joining the council’s street cleaning crew for three sessions.
To donate to The Sussex Beacon, click here.
Have the people who broke windows and graffiti the front of Conference Centre when the FiLiA women’s Conference was there been arrested yet? 🙏
It was pretty scary getting into the building the following day past that horrible baying mob.
Instead of gaoling/fining this waste of oxygen perhaps he could be sentenced to spend the next few years spending eight hours a day, five days a week doing nothing but scrubbing tags off every surface disfigured by this moronic garbage…
Just three sessions cleaning up does feel light.
3 cleans not enough for you .
I think you need disinfectant
I’m sorry about whatever it is you are going through. I hope it gets better, whatever it is.
Definitely need these thugs doing more community service. A few years of cleaning up the defaced city could save the council employing striking bin officials.
The new poster is a great response from the Sussex Beacon shop.
But I’d question this one quote in the report:
“We hope the murals of Freddie Mercury and Sir Elton John, two icons renowned for standing against stigma and inequality, will inspire everyone who visits our shop and the wider community beyond.”
Sir Elton is certainly an icon renowned for standing against stigma and inequality, but Freddie Mercury – while a much loved performer – actually said very little about stigma or equality during his lifetime. He was not one to use his fame as a political platform.
Mercury’s gayness was an open secret, hiding in plain sight behind the ‘clone’ image, but not something he ever publicly acknowledged.
Monday, December 1st, is World AIDS day, and Freddy Mercury will be remembered as one of the millions who died from HIV-related illness at that tragic time when there was no cure and very little medical treatment.
On the night of Freddie’s death in 1991, I remember that the early editions of one or two tabloid newspapers carried some nasty headlines about AIDS, but they quickly had to change the story for later editions when the outpouring of public grief from fans made them see they had got their headline wrong.
This was perhaps a tipping point in public opinion, where the stigma and bigoted blame about AIDS began to be replaced with caring and humanity.