Two UK Air Force engineers (RAF) were convicted of vandalism after destroying a Statue of the Paddington Bear in Newbury, England. The incident occurred at dawn on March 2, when Daniel Heath and William Lawrence, both 22, pulled out the statue from the bench where he was installed, leaving it in half.
According to The Guardian newspaper, the act was captured by video surveillance chambers, whose images were presented in court. During the trial, Judge Sam Gozee harshly criticized engineers, stressing that the Paddington bear is a cultural symbol that promotes values such as kindness, tolerance and integration.
“The label in the coat of Paddington says, ‘Please take care of this bear,’ but that night your actions were the opposite of everything it represents,” the judge said. Trish Willetts, responsible for the Newbury Business Improvement District, has reinforced the statue’s cultural importance, noting that Michael Bond, creator of Paddington, is a new Newbury.
The engineers were ordered to pay £ 2,725 (about 3,260 euros) each to cover the damage caused and will have to do 150 hours of community work.
