Barry Hearn wants protesters who disrupt sporting events to face jail time

The World Snooker Tour president Barry Hearn has called for activists who disrupt sporting events to be jailed to prevent copycat attacks after incidents at the Grand National and World Snooker Championship.

Hearn’s comments came as he forecast further incidents at Wimbledon and the Open unless Britain became less of a “soft-touch as a nation”.

“Sport’s an easy target,” he told Talksport. “Aintree we saw on Saturday. How long before the Open or Wimbledon or whatever? And it is a concern because, whenever someone intrudes on the field of play, wherever it is, your first thought is not that this could be a protest, but it could be something quite harmful.

“We’re such a soft touch as a nation – smack their wrists, give them a small fine, maybe a bit of community hours, maybe a month in prison. It’s a ludicrous situation but what do you do about it?” he said. “The problem is there’s not enough deterrent out there for these people to do anything but get away with it.”

Hearn’s intervention came a day after a Just Stop Oil activist threw a packet of orange powder over a snooker table at the Crucible on Monday, forcing the first-round match between Robert Milkins and Joe Perry to be suspended for 24 hours. South Yorkshire police have said a 25-year-old man and a 52-year-old woman have been bailed until 15 June after being arrested on suspicion of causing criminal damage.

Meanwhile last Saturday, 118 activists from Animal Rising were detained after causing the Grand National to be delayed by 14 minutes.

However, Hearn believes without tougher action, nothing will change. “It might cost them a few hours of their freedom,” he said. “But there’s no serious deterrent and, for that reason alone, expect more of these, not less.

“It