A man who threw eggs at the king before shouting “friends with Jimmy Savile” has been found guilty of threatening behaviour. Patrick Thelwell shouted: “The king is a paedophile,” after throwing several eggs towards King Charles during a walkabout in York last year. The 23-year-old had pleaded not guilty to a section 4 public order offence, arguing his use of “low-level violence” was lawful because it was self-defence against “the violence carried out by the British state”. On Friday, the chief magistrate, senior district judge Paul Goldspring, found the defendant guilty of the charge, saying Thelwell “intended to cause King Charles to believe immediate unlawful violence would be used against him”. He sentenced Thelwell to a 12-month community order with 100 hours of unpaid work. He also ordered the defendant to pay £600 in court costs and a £114 surcharge at a rate of £5 a week. The king and queen consort had arrived in the city on 9 November to unveil a statue of the late Queen Elizabeth II at York Minster, and were being welcomed by local dignitaries at Micklegate Bar when Thelwell threw five eggs, which “came very close to hitting King Charles”, York magistrates court heard. The prosecutor, Michael Smith, said Thelwell was identified quickly and removed from the crowd before being detained on the ground and arrested. When Thelwell was taken into custody, one egg was found in his pocket. During the trial he was stopped by the judge from asking a police witness whether he “was aware the king was photographed numerous times with Jimmy Savile”, the disgraced TV presenter. Goldspring told him: “Whether or not the king was photographed with Jimmy Savile has no relevance to this trial at all.” Speaking to the Guardian at the time of his arrest, Thelwell said: “Who doesn’t want to egg the king? It’s a protest against the descent into fascism of this country. “The way that the crowd reacted, people just lost their minds. They were, like, ripping my hair out in chunks and kicking at me and calling for my head on a spike.” However, when the police officer who arrested Thelwell was asked in court, he said he did not remember this. Thelwell also revealed he faced death threats after being identified as the person who had thrown the eggs. He described himself as an anarchist and added that he did not “respect the legitimacy of the crown, or his courts”. He added: “I hope more people feel inspired in their ability to use whatever platform they have to speak out against this country, against what it’s doing to refugees and against its complicity in the genocides that are occurring around the world.”