Pub crawls organised by student event planners Carnage UK have been banned by students’ unions across the UK as a 19-year-old student faces prison for urinating on a war memorial.

On a recent Carnage UK crawl in Sheffield, student Philip Laing urinated on a World War One memorial. Laing pleaded guilty to outraging public decency and faces a prison sentence after admitting to a Sheffield court that he was “the drunkest [he had] ever been.” The incident came after Laing had been on a seven-hour drinking marathon organised by Carnage and was snapped during the deed.

Carnage UK organises pub crawls up and down the country and is popular amongst students with thousands tempted by the offer of entrance to 10 bars and a nightclub for the price of £10.  The Printworks in Manchester has played host to many of the organisation’s events.

However, the backlash following Laing’s drunken disorder offence has prompted students’ unions to ban the event. At least 17 unions have now banned Carnage, with many more distancing themselves from the company.

The most recent university to pull the plug has been Exeter, whose second Carnage event of the year was expected to take place on Sunday but could not continue with bars and clubs pulling out at the last minute and with police refusing to pick up the bill for policing drunken and disorderly students.

Carnage, run by Birmingham-based Varsity Leisure Group Ltd, organises events for around 350,000 students a year in 45 towns, has denied that the event is a drinking marathon.

Yet 19-year-old University of Manchester student Rosemary, who attended a Carnage event in Manchester commented: “No matter what they say, it is all about drinking. Although the night was poorly organised with no real sense of what was going on, the organisers didn’t really care. They just kept on making up drinking games and encouraging us to drink even more which wasn’t really an issue at the moment in time but definitely is in hindsight.”

Richard Budden, National Union of Students Vice-President (Union Development), said: “There is an acute and real danger to students who get caught up with these nights, not to mention the danger to members of the local population, and the harm done to towns and town community relationships.

“An increasing number of campuses want to see the end of these events and are doing all they can to stop them by prohibiting ticket sales and banning all publicity.

“They take students on pub crawls that degrade the participants, put students’ welfare at risk and lead to antisocial behaviour. They make their money and then disappear, leaving student unions, police, and sometimes even the hospitals to pick up the pieces.”

Laing’s actions have also been condemned by the relatives of war veterans and a number of Facebook groups sprung up demanding that Laing should be forced to scrub the memorial clean.

In a statement after Laing’s hearing, a representative for Carnage and VLG said: “VLG, owner of the Carnage UK brand, does not promote the commission of criminal offences. It is highly defamatory to suggest that it does.”

Laing’s case has been adjourned until November 26, with nine other Carnage events taking place last week and more expected in the coming weeks.

Source: Mancunian Student Direct; Friday 20th November, 2009