The monument to the slave trader was toppled in Bristol during a Black Lives Matter protest.
Image source, Ben Birchall/PA
Four people accused of illegally removing a statue of Edward Colston have been cleared of criminal damage.
Sage Willoughby, Rhian Graham, Milo Ponsford, and Jake Skuse, were charged after a monument to the 17th Century slave trader was pulled down and thrown into Bristol’s harbourside last June.
It happened during a Black Lives Matter protest in the city.
Loud cheers erupted in the public gallery of Bristol Crown Court as the verdicts were returned.
The defendants laughed and hugged supporters who were waiting outside of court after they were released.
‘Shameful’
Mr Willoughby, 22, was also seen taking the knee – a symbolic gesture of the BLM movement – outside court.
Speaking afterwards, Raj Chada, who represented Mr Skuse, said the “defendants should never have been prosecuted”.
He added: “It is shameful that Bristol City Council did not take down the statue of slaver Edward Colston that had caused such offence to people in Bristol and equally shameful that they then supported the prosecution of these defendants.”
Blinne Ni Ghralaigh, for Rhian Graham, 30, claimed that the case “demonstrates the fundamental importance of trial by jury”.
“In this case, they determined that a conviction for the removal of this statue – that glorified a slave trader involved in the enslavement of over 84,000 black men, women and children as a ‘most virtuous and wise’ man – would not be proportionate.”
During a highly publicised trial, the court heard that the statue was ripped down before being thrown into the harbour during a wave of protests triggered by the murder of African-American George Floyd by a white police officer.
The four defendants, together with “others unknown”, were accused of damaging the Colston statue and plinth of a value unknown without lawful excuse.
Image source, PA Media
During the trial, Mr Skuse, 33, said he took part in rolling the statue to the docks to stage a symbolic “sentencing” of the slave trader.
Mr Willoughby argued that the statue was an “insult”.
Appearing in the dock, he said: “Imagine having a Hitler statue in front of a Holocaust survivor – I believe they are similar.
“Having a statue of someone of that calibre in the middle of the city I believe is an insult, and I will continue to believe that whatever the outcome of this.”
