The statue of Winston Churchill in Parliament Square has been defaced with graffiti (Picture: PA)
A man has been charged with criminal damage after the statue of Sir Winston Churchill in was been defaced with graffiti branding the former prime minister a ‘Zionist war criminal’.
Other phrases including ‘Stop the Genocide’ and ‘Free Palestine’ were sprayed in red paint on the bronze sculpture in Parliament Square,Westminster.
Further graffiti read ‘Never again is Now’ and ‘Globalise the Intifada’.
Caspar San Giorgio,of no fixed address,was arrested shortly after 4am on Friday and has since been charged with criminal damage.
He is due to appear at Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court this morning.
Dutch group Free the Filton 24 claimed responsibility for the action on Friday morning,posting a video on Instagram appearing to show the incident in progress.
Graffiti branding the former prime minister a ‘Zionist war criminal’ (Picture: PA)
Other phrases including ‘Stop the Genocide’ and ‘Free Palestine’ were sprayed in red paint on the bronze sculpture (Picture: PA)
Free the Filton 24 defines itself as a group of ‘family and friends’ of the 24 Palestine Action activists who were charged over a break-in at one of Israel-based defence firm Elbit’s UK sites in 2024.
On Friday,a Greater London Authority spokesperson said: ‘We are appalled by this vandalism to the statue of Sir Winston Churchill and work is under way to remove the graffiti as quickly as possible.’
Downing Street also commented on the vandalism of the statue,labelling it ‘completely abhorrent’.
A Number 10 spokesman said: ‘Churchill was a great Briton. This Government will always stand up for our values and the perpetrator must be held to account.’
The former prime minister’s statue has been vandalised several times in the past,including during protests.
It was scrawled with graffiti accusing Sir Winston of being a racist in June 2020 during a Black Lives Matter protest triggered by the death of George Floyd in the US.
Later that year,in October,an Extinction Rebellion activist was ordered to pay more than £1,500 after defacing the statue by painting ‘racist’ on its plinth during a climate protest.
The 12ft-tall monument,created by Ivor Roberts-Jones,was unveiled in 1973 by the former prime minister’s wife Lady Clementine Churchill.
It is one of 12 statues on or around Parliament Square,most of well-known statesmen such as Abraham Lincoln and Nelson Mandela.
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