A man who dressed up as Darth Vader, wearing a garbage bag for a cape, and assaulted the founders of a group calling itself the Jedi church was given a suspended sentence Tuesday.

Arwel Wynne Hughes, 27, attacked Jedi church founder Barney Jones — aka Master Jonba Hehol — with a metal crutch, hitting him on the head, prosecutors told Holyhead Magistrates' Court.

He also whacked Jones' 18-year-old cousin, Michael Jones — known as Master Mormi Hehol — bruising his thigh in the March 25 incident, prosecutors said.

The two cousins and Barney Jones' brother, Daniel, set up the Church of Jediism, Anglesey order, last year. Jedi is the faith followed by some of the central characters in the "Star Wars" films.

The group, which claims about 30 members, says on its Web site that it uses "insight and knowledge" from the films as "a guide to living a better and more worthwhile life."

"We all love the films and what they stand for. Obviously some people are going to laugh about it," the Wales on Sunday newspaper quoted Barney Jones as saying last month. "But a lot of people do take it seriously."

Unfortunately for Hughes, his March attack was recorded on a video camera that the cousins had set up to film themselves in a light saber battle.

"Darth Vader! Jedis!" Hughes shouted as he approached.

Hughes claimed he couldn't remember the incident, having drunk the better part of a 2 1/2-gallon (10-liter) box of wine beforehand.

"He knows his behavior was wrong and didn't want it to happen but he has no recollection of it," said Hughes' lawyer, Frances Jones.

District Judge Andrew Shaw sentenced Hughes to two months in jail but suspended the sentence for one year. He also ordered Hughes to pay $195 to each of his victims and $117 in court costs.

In the 2001 United Kingdom census, 390,000 — 0.7 percent of the population — listed Jedi as their religion.
Source http://snipurl.com/28tmy

AH HA HA HA HA HA HA HA! The 2001 census? 390,000 people? Holy s**t!

What ... a ... bunch ... of ... f**king ... nerds.

I ACTUALLY ROFLED.

I need to check youtube. I'll take the assault or the light saber fight video. I don't care which one. Hmmm...Do they do the light saber fights in costume I wonder? I think I should have put a drinking liquids while reading this can cause projectile spraying out your nose! warning

Lmao!

If I were the Judge, Mr. Hughes would have had to do roadside cleanup as community services as well.....in costume.

In our last Census, I listed myself as Jedi.

But not serious of course.

Shows how simple it is to 'create' a religion and get people to follow it.

Just make up a set of rules, and you're pretty much done.

But HEY! If you can get registered as a religion, then all of your home electronics purchases, including HDTV, Blu-Ray, 7.1 Surround sound and your computers could be tax exempt!
Hmmmm....I'm starting to feel the FORCE myself.....

Ya I was gonna register a religion with the state of California. It's pretty easy to do and get tax exempt status. I was gonna call it the First Church of The Techno Morality. Rent a warehouse space downtown for a church. Have services on Friday and Saturday night. A $20 offering (or tithe) at the door got you all the holy sacrament (beer) you could drink, baptisms (hard liquor) in the back room for an extra offering, and there would be guest ministers (bands) to give the nightly sermons till 1:00AM. But we tried a similar scam passing out fliers and posting where the gig would be without the religious stuff, but we kept getting raided by the L.A.P.D. and fire department so it only lasted a few weeks. I gave up on it after that sounded like too many hastles. I'll just stick with worshipping Zeus.

If you could open a chapter of the FCTM in my area and through in a lan-party hookup along with the beer and I'll convert.

Gerritt

lmao, thats amazing

Actually, you'd probably have to offer "Jolt" cola or some derivative as a sacrement for those that do not support the barley soda of the core constituents.

Gerritt

Well Gerritt, I seem to remember, when I was little, before I got kicked out of my church, that for communion the blood of christ wasn't some baptist kool-aid/grape juice, but real honest to goodness burgundy. Now I was under 12 but don't remember any ATF guys waiting in the wings. So I wonder if they could enforce the 21 drinking age? I mean the Native American Church guys still get to do their Peyote don't they? LOL I forgot a part. The private confessional room which for an extra offering allows you to confess your techno transgressions with one of the Vestial Virgins who will perform a laying-on-of-the-hands ritual to purge any botnet demons or coveting of your neighbors video card thoughts. And ya Jolt or Monster or (my personal choice) Pepsi One or Coke Zero

Dang Payton, you got kicked out at 12? I didn't bow out of organized religion until much later!
As I seem to recall though, any left over sacremental wine was finished off by priest and deacons, while the congregation only got to get the tiniest of sips, or a dunking of the "host" in the wine. So the elders of the new church would have to finish off the pony kegs. This is only fair. The elders could be considered to be those that have made major "contributions" in whatever manner, to the church.
I'm not sure if contributions should be considered specifically in the monetary sense, as if it was, I'm afraid that I'd go to service one day and hear all about Xenu...something I'm not really into and may lead to fragmentation of the core values of the church!
I seem to recall reading a story a long time ago about a church surrounding the teachings of St. Videocon or some such. If you could track these writings down, we could show a historical relevence for the newly incorportated religion.

Gerritt