Man jailed after burgling Damien Hirst’s London studio while wearing GPS ankle tag | London
A man has been jailed for robbing one of Damien Hirst’s studios after police tracked his movements with a GPS-enabled wrist tag.
Liam Middleton-Gomm, 36, broke into Thames Wharf Studios in west London on June 30 and stole goods worth around £5,130, including electronics, clothes and a baby stroller.
The burglar smashed the window next to the fire escape and reached down to open the shutter, prosecutor Paul Andrews told Kingston Crown Court on Thursday.
The court heard Middleton-Gomm, of no fixed abode, went to the studio twice that evening and went to his father’s property with some of the stolen goods.
Middleton-Gomm is understood to have stolen several decorated leather jackets, trousers, embroidered shirts and a Dior stroller with silver skulls on the wheels. Some of the properties were sold and could not be saved.
His father, Leslie Gomm, 62, of Fulham, west London, previously pleaded guilty to disposing of stolen goods for the benefit of his son and was granted a one-year conditional discharge on Thursday. He had been detained for three and a half months before his sentence was handed down.
The prosecution said Gomm did not know that the studio had been robbed.
Police charged the thief after reviewing his GPS ankle tag and DNA data from the scene, Andrews told the court.
Judge Barklem sentenced Middleton-Gomm to 32 months in prison and said: “When you committed these offenses you were wearing a GPS tag, which was in fact part of your license conditions.”
The court heard Middleton-Gomm had 39 previous convictions covering 83 offences, including numerous burglaries. The judge added: “Your appalling previous record is of course a serious aggravating factor.”
Kathleen Mulhern, defending Middleton-Gomm, said her client suffered a “significant fall” in 2023 that left him with injuries to his spine and pelvis and permanent pain that was treated with a “fairly strong” painkiller.
The judge confirmed that the fall involved “a metal pole impaling his back while he was running from the police”.
Middleton-Gomm had pleaded guilty to twice robbing Hirst’s riverside studio.
He was also sentenced to prison for two counts of burglary on July 9 and July 17, and one count of attempted burglary of property on July 9.
Bristol-born, Leeds-based artist Hirst came to attention in 1988 when, as a student at Goldsmiths, University of London, he designed and curated the group exhibition Freeze.
He won the Turner Prize in 1995 for his work Mother and Child, Divided, which included a cow and her calf preserved in formaldehyde.
Prisons minister Lord James Timpson said after the hearing: “Our GPS tags send a clear message to criminals: if you break the law we will know where you are and justice will come for you.”
As of September 2025, more than 22,000 criminals and defendants were wearing electronic tags.
The government plans to tag thousands more offenders over the next three years as part of policy changes.
