Vandals of the UK’s Edward Colston statue learn their fate in court
At the height of the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, that were sparked by the murder of George Floyd by a US police officer, protestors all around the world took it upon themselves to remove commemorative statues of slave traders.
In the UK city of Bristol, four people removed a monument of Edward Colston from a town square, before pushing the statue into the nearby harbour.
Many protestors joined the four in spray-painting and destroying the statue, with many onlookers filming the destruction on their phones.
Edward Colston was a member of the Royal African Company, and was responsible for transporting thousands of slaves from Africa during the mid 17th century.
The four protestors - Rhian Graham, Jake Skuse, Sage Willoughby, and Milo Ponsford - were all charged with criminal damage when they removed the statue without permission.
According to the Guardian, the protestors did not deny that they had toppled the monument, but maintained their innocence over the charges.
Despite admitting their involvement, the four protestors were found not guilty and set free.
The graffitied monument of Colston has since gone back on view in view in Bristol in a museum, with historian David Olusoga saying that it is “the most important artifact you could select in Britain if you wanted to tell the story of Britain’s tortuous relationship with its role in the Atlantic slave trade.”
Image credits: Getty Images