Smash hit

He said that he was standing “in solidarity” with Tibetans who took to the streets of Lhasa in March in a violent protest against Chinese rule. The demonstrators set fire to hundreds of shops and offices in riots that killed at least 22 people, mainly ethnic Han Chinese. China has mounted a huge security operation in Tibetan areas to try to stop further demonstrations.

Mr Thom said on the phone: “We did this action today to highlight the Chinese Government’s use of the Beijing Olympics as a propaganda tool for whitewashing their human rights record on Tibet.” Clinging to the pylon, between the stadium and the new National Swimming Centre, Mr Thom watched the security forces, including the People’s Armed Police, move into position.

“There is quite a lot of police about and a fire truck has just arrived. I’m a long-term Tibet supporter and I feel that now is a critical time for Tibet.”

The parents of the two Britons voiced pride at the protesters’ actions. Speaking from his home in Muir of Ord, near Inverness, Brian Thom, 53, said: “This was a peaceful exercise. There was no malice in any way.”

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Iain Thom, who grew up in Muir of Ord and attended Dingwall Academy, graduated from Edinburgh University with a first-class degree in environmental geoscience two years ago. He has been a campaigner for Friends of the Earth. His father added: “He was very passionate about this and we are right behind him.”

Ms Fairbrother first became involved in the Free Tibet movement while a student at Hills Road Sixth Form College in Cambridge, her family said. Her best friend there was Peter Speller, an ardent pro-Tibet activist who ended up in trouble with the Chinese authorities a few years later.

Peter’s father, Kim Speller, said that it was his family’s fault that she had become a passionate champion of the Free Tibet cause. “Lucy got interested when she was at sixth-form college with Pete and it’s down to us,” Mr Speller said. “We’re long-standing Tibeto-philes. Peter was brought up with Tibet as wallpaper on the walls.”

Mr Speller was arrested in China a year ago after he unfurled a banner on the Great Wall and was deported a few days later.

It was not until she visited Tibet while teaching on her gap year in Nepal four years ago that Ms Fairbrother’s interest developed into a strong desire to take a stand herself. At Bristol University she took the first opportunity to join a Tibet support group.

Her mother, Linda, a television journalist, said: “She’s no champagne socialist — she’s been there and seen things with her own eyes. I am very proud that Lucy is getting involved with something like this. It’s a good cause for human rights and for democracy. It’s also a totally non-violent movement. If my daughter’s going to be put in prison for anything I’m glad it’s for a human rights protest.”

Mrs Fairbrother said that her daughter’s online account of a trip to Tibet appeared to have been altered. The posting, A Short Stay in Tibet, now reads: I admit that I have been under much influence of militant Free Tibet organisations back home. What China is doing now, and what China HAS done are so different, and I am angry with myself for not realising the distinction before now.”

Her mother told The Guardian last night: “This certainly sounds unlike anything Lucy would have written. I saw the original and I certainly have no memory of anything like that figuring in it. I would imagine it’s been done today. Students for a Free Tibet have in the past had tampering with their own internal e-mails.”