A woman accused of helping to topple the statue of the slave trader Edward Colston told police it was “an abhorrent offence” to the population of Bristol, a court has heard.
Rhian Graham was one of four people to go on trial at Bristol crown court accused of criminal damage of the 125-year-old bronze statue, which was pulled from its plinth during Black Lives Matter protests last year, and thrown in the River Avon.
The jury heard that Graham said in a police interview: “I accept that I helped cause the damage to the statue.
“But whether it is criminal or not I think, is up for debate, because of all the context around the statue, and the fact that people have campaigned to take it down and it is just an abhorrent offence to a lot of the population of Bristol.”
Opening for the prosecution, however, William Hughes QC told the jury of six men and six women that the fact that Colston was a slave trader was “wholly irrelevant” to the case before them.
Graham, 30, was accused alongside Milo Ponsford, 26, Sage Willoughby, 22, and “others unknown” of helping to tie ropes around the statue’s neck that were used to pull it to the ground. Jake Skuse, 33, was accused of helping to roll it to Bristol harbour, where it was thrown into the River Avon.
Hughes said that at 2pm on 7 June last year a peaceful march had begun in the city as part of the worldwide Black Lives Matter demonstrations after the murder of George Floyd by Derek Chauvin, a police officer in Minnesota.
While the bulk of the 10,000-strong crowd proceeded on a route agreed by organisers, a “small number of individuals” gathered around the statue of Colston in the city centre, which became their “focus of attention”, Hughes said.
“Using ropes brought to the scene, the statue was pulled down from its plinth by members of this small group, who included the first three defendants,” he argued. “After being daubed with paint, spat on and being struck with implements, the statue was then rolled through the centre and thrown into the harbour at Pero’s bridge.
“The fourth defendant – Mr Skuse, the crown say – was involved in this later activity of rolling the statue from its original place to where it was thrown into the water.”
There were cheers and applause from the public gallery when video played to the jury showed the moment Colston was felled, prompting a warning from the judge, Peter Blair QC, the recorder of Bristol. Hughes said the video clearly showed the defendants taking part in the actions that damaged the statue.
Hughes told the court: “The prosecution accept and make clear Edward Colston himself was and remains a divisive figure among the people of Bristol and beyond. It is common ground that he was a slaver and gained much of his fortune from the slave trade.
“In later life, it appears Colston was also something of a philanthropist. This prosecution is not about justification of him or his vilification; the prosecution’s position is that it is wholly irrelevant to the issues you have to decide in this case – the defence position is the contrary – that it is relevant.”
All four defendants were interviewed by police in the weeks after the protest. Skuse and Ponsford answered no comment to all questions, while Graham and Willoughby admitted the role they played but argued it was justified.
Hughes said that when the statue was pulled out of the River Avon four days later it was estimated that the cost of repairing it would be about £3,750, and that a further £350 worth of damage was caused to the railings by Pero’s bridge.
Bristol city council have since chosen not to repair the damage to the statue, and it now lies, still broken and daubed with paint, in a museum in the city.
Skuse, Graham, Ponsford and Willoughby all deny criminal damage. The case continues.