One of the best stories of the week is of a man who dressed up as Darth Vader and single handedly assaulted a Jedi church.In an act that is a mix of lunacy and genius, Arwel Wynne Hughes, aged 27, attacked the Church of Jediism - Anglesey order ? in March last year whilst wearing a black bin bag as a cape.

Bursting trough the doors, an extremely inebriated Hughes screamed, ?Darth Vader! Jedis!? then proceeded to club church founder and Hairdresser Barney Jones ? aka Master Jonba Hehel ? with a metal crutch on the head. He then set about Jones? 18 year old cousin ? known as Master Mormi Hehol ? bruising his thigh.The two cousins and Barney Jones? brother, Daniel set up the UK?s first ever Jedi church last year. As everyone should be aware, Jedi was the faith the good guys in Star Wars followed. Boasting 30 members, the Jedi ?order? say?s on their website that it uses ?insight and knowledge? from the films as ?a guide to living a better and more worthwhile life.

Barney Jones was quoted as saying, “We all love the films and what they stand for. Obviously some people are going to laugh about it, but a lot of people do take it seriously.?

The best part about this whole story is that when ?Darth? launched his assault, the cousins were filming themselves having a light saber battle, so when it came to the court case this week, there was no escaping punishment. Hughes claimed to not remember the incident, due to the 2? gallon box of wine he had drank 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 gave Hughes a delayed two month jail service and forced him to pay a total of ?260 in damages and court costs. Mr Shaw added that Hughes, who left his cape at home in favour of shellsuit trousers, a striped jumper and white trainers, had already made good progress, according to the author of his pre-sentencing report.

In the 2001 United Kingdom census, 390,000 ? 0.7 percent of the population ? listed Jedi as their religion.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 15th, 2008 at 12:16 pm and is filed under weird. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.