Five Animal Rebellion activists who threw fake blood at the Queen Victoria Memorial outside Buckingham Palace have been found guilty of criminal damage.
Christopher Bennett, 33, Riley Ings, 27, Louis McKenney, 23, Claire Smith, 26, and Rachel Steele, 48, defaced the white marble statue in protest against the victim on August 26, 2021.
Southwark Crown Court heard protesters threw red liquid at the monument and started an arson attack.
Prosecutors said the dye not only turned the water red, but also stained the stone of the fountain.
CCTV footage showed several protesters dyeing their hands red and then stomping on the stone fountain.
Louis McKenney pictured after throwing red dye into the Queen Victoria Memorial fountain
Abolitionist protesters stand in front of the Queen Victoria Memorial Fountain
Rachel Steele at a protest led by a group of Animal Rebellion protesters in August 2021
Five activists from Animal Rebellion, an offshoot of Extinction Rebellion, denied the charges but were found guilty by a jury of £7,080 worth of damage to the monument.
Judge Gregory Perrins granted them bail ahead of sentencing on October 18.
Ailsa McKeon, prosecuting, said: ‘Within a short time both the water and the brickwork were stained.
‘Five defendants have been arrested and several red bottles have been recovered.
‘Some issues in this case are not in dispute, it is understood that the defendants do not deny that they were present, there is dispute over what actually caused the damage.
“These defendants are not being prosecuted for expressing these views, but they are being sued for thousands of pounds in damages.”
Luke Cooper, team leader of the statues and fountains events team, said in a statement read to the court: “Following investigation we have established that the substance has penetrated deeply into the marble.”
“It is necessary to completely empty and clean the entire system.”
Cooper said a “steam system” was needed to remove the red stain.
“The dye penetrated so deeply into the marble that we couldn’t remove it immediately,” he added.
As evidence, Ings said: ‘The general climate of the climate crisis. The science is pretty clear about the consequences of letting us continue like this.
‘The reason is that the Crown was trying to get out of climate targets on carbon emissions. They were trying to abdicate responsibility for making those changes.’
Ings said they wanted to create a “bloody handprint” on the fountain.
Police officers move protesters away from the Queen Victoria Memorial Fountain, which they have covered in red.
Five activists from Animal Rebellion, an offshoot of Extinction Rebellion, denied the charges but were found guilty by a jury of causing £7,080 worth of damage to the monument.
“Part of the protest was to create the visual effect of bloody handprints on the side of the fountain.”
McKenney told the court: “I took part in the protest because I believe the royal family has blood on their hands.”
‘The most important thing for me was the figurative meaning. It is largely true that a third of children in inner London live in food poverty, but the royals are the largest landowners in the country.
‘Food poverty is going to get worse. How many will die? How many will not eat? How many members of the royal family?’
‘I understand that the dye is not toxic or harmful. I could drink it if I wanted to. It was designed to not be harmful. If it was going to harm a living being, that group wanted nothing to do with it.
McKenney said the water in the fountain was “dirty,” adding: “It doesn’t seem to be maintained very well most of the time.”
The 23-year-old said after the sentencing today: ‘The outcome in court today was not ideal, but it was expected. The justice system in this country is not organised around real justice, but around the continuation of the status quo.
“It’s crazy to me that it’s been three years since the protest and we’ve had a 40-degree heatwave during that time, but there’s been no action from our government.
“Until we have a plant-based food system we have no choice but to continue; anything else would be a betrayal of our generation and the generations to come.”
Steele said the purpose of the protest was “a simple and dramatic approach to draw attention to the cause we are talking about: the fact that the royal family is trying to meet carbon emissions targets and gain media attention.”
Environmental activist Louis McKenney was arrested as he and other Just Stop Oil workers blocked the Cobham Services service station on the M25 in Surrey in 2022.
Louis McKenney is carried off the pitch after tying himself to a post during a Premier League match in 2022
McKenney was sentenced to six weeks in prison for the stunt.
‘How long did you think the water would stay red?’ Laura Stockdale asked defensively.
Steele replied: ‘A week, max. Bright red for a day. and then gradually fading.’
He said he knew the dye was harmless.
‘We are a vegetarian and loving activist group. If there was a die, why would this team use something that wasn’t there?
He said he did not read a label warning him not to allow the substance to come into contact with rocks.
‘I was going to throw it into the water. I wasn’t investigating its effect on the stone.
McKenney was jailed for six weeks for aggravated housebreaking in September 2022 after chaining himself to a goalpost at Everton’s Goodison Park stadium during the Just Stop Oil protest.
He entered the field at the Goladis Street end of the pitch at the start of the second half of the match against Newcastle United.
McKenney was also jailed for three weeks in November 2022 for impaling himself on the frame of a £70m Van Gogh painting at London’s Courtauld Gallery.
On 30 June 2022, days after the JSO protest, McKechnie, along with four other environmental fanatics, disrupted the 2022 British Grand Prix at Silverstone.
They denied it but were found guilty of causing public nuisance with risk of “serious harm” to drivers and race stewards during the track invasion.
McKechnie and four other workers in that case have since challenged the convictions in an appeals court and are awaiting a ruling.
