Serious doubts remain today over the official government line on the Rhyl
egg-throwing incident and subsequent fist-fight involving deputy prime
minister John Prescott.
Farm worker Craig Evans was arrested and questioned by police over the
incident and is currently out on bail. He has been portrayed the sole instigator
of the incident after news pictures clearly showed him throwing an egg at the
deputy prime minister from close range, which in turn provoked him to punch
Evans and then triggered a fracas involving police officers and Prescott’s
personal aides.
However, painstaking frame by frame analysis of the video footage from that
day shows what appears to be a second egg thrower hidden behind
undergrowth on a grassy verge some distance from the main crowd of protesters.
The Rhyl ‘grassy verge’
Although North Wales police have rejected these claims and say they are not
looking for anyone else in connection with the incident, the possibility remains
that Evans may not have been acting alone, but was simply a patsy used by a
secretive organisation determined to throw eggs at the deputy prime minister.
Pictures from the scene show Prescott had egg splattered over the left side of his
head and also his back. Some analysts claim that whilst technically feasible, it is
highly unlikely that such a ‘splatter pattern’ could be produced by one egg.
Some have referred to this as the ‘Magic Egg’ theory.
Craig Evans’ neighbours have described him as a ‘perfectly normal
young man’ but one told reporters he had recently begun associating with a
group of extremist egg-throwing activists and had apparently developed a
fascination with eggs, often returning home from shopping trips with as many
as two dozen. But the neighbour, who asked to remain anonymous, later
retracted his comments and cannot now be contacted.