Three eco-zealots who smashed display containing William Wallace’s sword ordered to pay £3,333 fine EACH after trying to hide behind ‘suffragette’ defence
- Alexander Cloudsley, Katrielle Chan and Imogen Robertson were all fined
- The activists from protest group This Is Rigged smashed the case in March
Three climate activists who smashed a glass display case containing William Wallace’s sword have each been ordered to pay a £3,333 fine.
Alexander Cloudsley, 30, a foodbank coordinator, Katrielle Chan, 21, a computer science student at the University of Strathclyde, and Imogen Robertson, 22, said they were emulating the actions of suffragette Ethel Moorhead.
The eco-zealots, who are part of protest group This Is Rigged, daubed slogans as they filmed the destruction.
CCTV showed Cloudsley and Chan entering the sword hall, donning safety goggles and gloves, and attacking the cabinet containing Wallace’s broadsword with hammers and chisels for almost two minutes.
They sprayed ‘This Is Rigged’ and ‘No New Oil’ on the glass in pink and black paint while Robertson filmed them.
Three climate activists who smashed a glass display case in March containing William Wallace’s sword have each been ordered to pay a £3,333 fine
Alexander Cloudsley, 30, a foodbank coordinator, Katrielle Chan (pictured together left), 21, a computer science student at the University of Strathclyde, and Imogen Robertson (right), 22, said they were emulating the actions of suffragette Ethel Moorhead
Cloudsley and Chan, of Glasgow, and Robertson, of Stirling, all first offenders, pleaded not guilty to vandalism on the grounds that their actions were covered by their ‘fundamental human right’ to protest about climate change.
Moorhead was one of two suffragettes who smashed the case containing the sword at the National Wallace Monument in 1912, leaving a note reading: ‘Your liberties were won by the sword, release the women who are fighting for their liberties…’
Stirling Sheriff Court heard it had cost Stirling Council, which owns the monument, £10,000 to replace the case.
As a result, Sheriff Keith O’Mahony ordered them each to pay £3,333 in compensation to the council and gave them 33 months to do so.
Staff at the monument on March 2 initially thought that ‘loud bangs’ coming from the sword room were due to road works.
A member of the public then shouted in alarm down the spiral staircase of the 221 foot sandstone tower.
O’Mahony, after hearing a day of evidence, found them guilty of acting in concert causing criminal damage.
He said he could see ‘no legitimate reason’ why the ‘council taxpayers of Stirling’ should have to foot the bill.
The sword was put back on display at the end of May (pictured) after Stirling Council said it had cost them £10,000 to replace the case
He said: ‘I would be absolutely failing in my duty if I applied anything other than critical thinking, in the legal sense, to this case.
‘Self-evidently, it was an act of vandalism.’
The historical broadsword is held at the National Wallace Monument at Stirling, and is said to have been used by the Scots hero at the Battle of Stirling Bridge in 1297.
The accused voluntarily told police: ‘We smashed it with hammers.’
Protest group This Is Rigged, which claimed responsibility, said: ‘We call out to anyone living in Scotland to join the campaign to help create a fair and just Scotland – a Scotland where people’s lives are valued over corporate profits and no Scot is left behind.’
Cloudsley said: ‘The climate crisis threatens everyone, everywhere in the world.
‘Any meaningful improvement in social justice had been brought about by direct action.
‘The climate crisis is literally killing us and we don’t have time to dither.
‘The Wallace Sword stands for justice, and is sometimes known as “freedom’s sword”.’
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