The toppling of the Edward Colston statue during a Black Lives Matter protest in 2020 was “violent” and therefore the defendants were not protected by the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), the UK’s Court of Appeal ruled on Wednesday.
The ruling does not overturn the acquittal of criminal damage charges against the four defendants.
On Jan. 5, Milo Ponsford, Jake Skuse, Sage Willoughby, and Rhian Graham were acquitted of causing criminal damage by a jury, despite having admitted to their involvement in tearing down the statue, which has been assessed to have sustained £3,750 ($4,050) worth of damage.
(L–R) Sage Willoughby, Jake Skuse, Milo Ponsford, and Rhian Graham outside Bristol Crown Court after they were acquitted of criminal damage on Jan. 5, 2022. (Ben Birchall/PA Media)
The trial heard that Ponsford and Graham brought ropes, which Willoughby passed around the statue’s neck, and Skuse goaded the crowd into rolling the statue 500 metres (1,640 feet) and throwing it into the water….