Yesterday Tom Meighan, former singer with Kasabian pleaded guilty to assaulting his former fiancee Vikki Ager on 9th April. The court heard how a child who was present was forced to call 999, and was said to sound ‘panicky and afraid’ on the call. Meighan had originally denied the assault, but told police he was unable to watch CCTV footage of the incident as it was ‘horrible.’ Meighan wiped his eyes with a tissue as the footage was shown in court and held his head in his hands. His barrister said that he felt ‘deep remorse’ for his actions, and referenced his battle with alcohol.
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The day before he made his plea, on Monday, Kasabian released a statement announcing that Meighan, one of three remaining original members of the band, was stepping down to deal with ‘personal issues.’
In a statement they wrote, ‘Tom has struggled with personal issues that have affected his behaviour for quite some time,’ adding that Meighan ‘now wants to concentrate all his energies on getting his life back on track,’ adding ‘we will not be commenting further.’
For me it’s that bit at the end that really sticks. The ‘we will not be commenting further’ - just in case we were hoping, now that the charge against him are in the public domain, that they might release a statement in support of victims of domestic abuse, or condemning their former bandmate's appalling actions, or, I don’t know making a donation to one of the many poorly funded domestic abuse charities that do vital work in protecting vulnerable women against men like Tom Meighan?
In the 24 hours since the case was first reported on, the band and Meighan himself have received deserved criticism for the way his departure was announced, and the band's apparent refusal to publicly criticise his actions or support victims of domestic abuse. Kasabian have since released a further statement, which claims that they believed that Meighan was going to admit wrongdoing in his own statement, which didn't happen. They finish by reiterating that 'domestic violence is something that can never be excused.'
It doesn't feel anything like enough to me though - a not very dignified blame game over who was supposed to tweet what and a cut and paste acknowledgement that domestic violence is, indeed very bad.
Because it's still nothing to do with them, apparently. They've distanced themselves from their former bandmate and his behaviour, so presumably that’s job done. It certainly raises some interesting questions about what it means to be a good man, or a good person. Because it’s not enough to not be the one throwing the punches. The minute you let other people’s behaviour slide, or look away, or take one step back so that people don’t think you’re involved, you are, in my view, complicit.
There are a whole myriad of things that are wrong with the way this has been dealt with - from the inbuilt excuse the band seemed to give in their original statement for Meighan’s behaviour - after all, violently assaulting a woman in front of a child is understandable if you’re struggling with ‘personal issues’ that ‘affect your behaviour’ - right? To the cynical nature of the timing, releasing an ambiguously worded statement announcing his departure from the band less than 24 hours before the case was made public.
And then there’s the sentence itself. You may think that an 18-month community order and an order to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work, plus five days of rehabilitation and £175 (including a £90 ‘victim surcharge) is sufficient, but I don’t. Meighan’s barrister also added, in mitigation that for him "to lose the opportunity to perform with the band he loves and people he loves is a huge personal loss.”
We’d all like to think that tortured artist schtick is getting a bit old, but no, it turns out it’s alive, and well, and still being used in a court of law to mitigate why a man would attack his former fiancee in front of a frightened child.