The longest prison sentence ever received for spitting chewing gum

The longest prison sentence ever received for spitting chewing gum onto a pavement was 17 years, imposed on Pierre Bonnechop by a court in Paris France, in 1976. Bonnechop had been seen spitting out 79 kilogrammes of gum on the rue de Cheveux, over 3 hours, on the morning of February 16^th that year. By the time he was arrested, the pile of gum measured 76cm high. Pleading guilty in court, Bonnechop told the Magistrate, Henri Poivre, “I don’t know what came over me, but for those 3 hours, literally all I could think was chew, spit, chew, spit, chew, spit. It may have been a reaction to my worries over the French dairy farming industry.”

After his early release in 1990, Bonnechop moved to this farm, outside of Tours. He has voluntarily taken part in several public awareness campaigns about public hygiene, including 3 videos where he appears as the anti-chewing gum mascot, "Le monstre qui mâche". Photograph by PhillipC.

©2012 James Mathurin