Vandal dumped shrub over statue of beloved Paddington bear, causing outcry
Anil Puri, aged 56, was caught by CCTV as he committed the crime in Little Dockray on December 2 last year.
The Paddington Bear figure has become a huge hit with town residents and visitors alike since it was unveiled in October, 2024. It was one of around two dozen similar statues installed on benches in locations across the UK prior to the release of the film Paddington in Peru, and the only one in Cumbria.
Prosecutor George Shelley told Carlisle Magistrates' Court this morning (Tuesday) the Paddington Bear figure, belonging to a film company, was maintained by the Penrith BID (business improvement district) group, which also owned surrounding planters.
CCTV captured Puri causing the damage. 'He pulls a shrub from the planter and dumps it on to the figure's head,' said Mr Shelley. Puri then shoved a shrub between Paddington's arms, which are clasped around his trademark marmalade sandwich.
There were scratches caused to the figure, which was damaged to the tune of £40. Around £250 damage was caused to the planters. 'The next day there was a public outcry on social media,' said Mr Shelley.
Puri, of Stanstead Road, Lewisham, London, said in the aftermath he had been suffering from mental health issues.
Appearing in court remotely today over a video link, Puri admitted causing criminal damage to the statue and planter. A man with no previous convictions, he apologised to all concerned for what he had done.
Magistrates fined Puri £50. He must also pay £290 compensation to Penrith BID, along with £85 costs and a £20 mandatory surcharge.
Penrith mayor Doug Lawson said in response to Puri's vandalism: 'Since Paddington arrived in Penrith, he has been a constant source of entertainment and joy for young and old alike. At one stage my Facebook feed was full of pictures of friends and family with the statue.
'I said at his unveiling that he was a symbol of the welcoming and generous culture of Penrith.
'With all that in mind, I am deeply saddened to hear that someone would attempt to damage the statue; obviously, any vandalism is wrong, but this act seems particularly heartless.
'I can only hope that having been caught, the person responsible reflects on their actions and the upset they have caused.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Yahoo
UK fears new summer of unrest, year after Southport riots
Concern is mounting that recent violent anti-immigrant protests could herald a new summer of unrest, a year after the UK was rocked by its worst riots in decades. Police have arrested 16 people since protests flared last week outside a hotel housing asylum seekers in the town of Epping, northeast of London. In one demonstration, eight police officers were injured. The unrest was "not just a troubling one-off", said the chairwoman of the Police Federation, Tiff Lynch. "It was a signal flare. A reminder of how little it takes for tensions to erupt and how ill-prepared we remain to deal with it," she wrote in the Daily Telegraph. Protestors shouted "save our children" and "send them home", while banners called for the expulsion of "foreign criminals". Cabinet minister Jonathan Reynolds on Thursday urged people not to speculate or exaggerate the situation, saying "the government, all the key agencies, the police, they prepare for all situations. "I understand the frustrations people have," he told Sky News. The government was trying to fix the problem and that the number of hotels occupied by asylum seekers had dropped from 400 to 200, he added. The issue of thousands of irregular migrants arriving in small boats across the Channel, coupled with the UK's worsening economy, has triggered rising anger among some Britons. Such sentiments have been amplified by inflammatory messaging on social networks, fuelled by far-right activists. Almost exactly a year ago on July 29, 2024, three young girls were stabbed to death in a frenzied attack in northwestern Southport. The shocking killings stoked days of riots across the country after false reports that the killer -- a UK-born teenager whose family came to the country from Rwanda after the 1994 genocide -- was a migrant. Nearly 24,000 migrants have made the perilous journey across the Channel so far in 2025, the highest-ever tally at this point in a year. The issue has become politically perilous, putting pressure on Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer's centre-left government, as the anti-immigrant, far-right Reform UK party rises in the polls. - 'More unrest likely' - The Epping protests were stirred after a 38-year-old asylum seeker, who only arrived in Britain in late June, was arrested and charged with three counts of sexual assault. Images from the protests have gone viral on social networks, mirroring what happened last July. But Epping residents have maintained that the protests are being fuelled by people from outside the community. "These violent scenes ... are not Epping, and they are not what we stand for," the Conservative MP for Epping, Neil Hudson, told parliament Monday. While calm was restored to Epping, a middle-class suburban town with a population of 12,000, tensions remain palpable. "This is the first time something like this has happened," one local who lives close to the Bell Hotel told AFP, asking not to be named. "The issue is not the hotel, but extremists applying a political ideology," he added. Late on Thursday, the hotel, cordoned off behind barriers, was again the centre of a protest involving dozens of people, with police making one arrest. With another protest expected on Sunday, the local council voted through a motion to demand the government no longer house asylum seekers at the hotel. The UK is "likely to see more racist riots take place this summer", said Aurelien Mondon, politics professor and expert on far-right and reactionary discourse at Bath University. Anti-immigrant protests have already erupted elsewhere, with demonstrations in the southeastern town of Diss in Norfolk outside a similar hotel on Monday. Last month, clashes flared for several days in the town of Ballymena in Northern Ireland after two teenagers with Romanian roots were arrested for the alleged attempted rape of a young girl. - 'Civil disobedience' - "It is well documented that many of the protests we are witnessing are not the result of grassroots, local movements," Mondon said. "Social media plays a role and facilitates coordination amongst extreme-right groups," but it is "also crucial not to exaggerate" its power, he added. High-profile far-right activist Tommy Robinson, who was blamed for stoking the Southport unrest, announced he would be in Epping on Sunday, before later seeming to scrap the plan. The firebrand anti-Islam campaigner has just been freed from jail after spreading fake news about a Syrian immigrant, but faces trial on a separate issue in 2026. "I don't think anybody in London even understands just how close we are to civil disobedience on a vast scale," said Reform leader Nigel Farage. "Most of the people outside that hotel in Epping weren't far right or far left," he said, they "were just genuinely concerned families". mct-ebl/jkb/jj/lb
Yahoo
19 hours ago
- Yahoo
Scottish airport fined £144,000 for failures that led to death of employee
The company that runs Glasgow Prestwick Airport has been fined more than £144,000 for failures that led to a member of airport staff falling to his death when a guardrail gave way. Joseph Dempsey, an experienced member of the airport's ground handling team, died in the incident on January 11 2023. The 59-year-old had been preparing to unload cargo from an aircraft using a pallet loader. He had positioned the loader alongside the aircraft and was repositioning a guardrail when it suddenly gave way and he fell to the tarmac some 10 feet (three metres) below. Mr Dempsey's colleagues immediately went to his assistance and paramedics attempted CPR and advanced life support. However, these efforts proved unsuccessful and Mr Dempsey was pronounced dead at the scene. An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found that one of the guardrail posts had completely fractured, and that there were visible signs of significant corrosion, discolouration and flaking white paint around the area. At Ayr Sheriff Court on June 25, Glasgow Prestwick Airport Ltd pled guilty to a breach of health and safety legislation, having failed to ensure the pallet loader was maintained and in good repair. At the same court on Thursday, the company was fined £144,050, including a victim surcharge of £10,050. Debbie Carroll leads on health and safety investigations for the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS). Speaking after the sentencing, she said: 'Joseph Dempsey lost his life in circumstances which could have been avoided if Prestwick Airport had in place a suitable and adequate maintenance and inspection programme to ensure the equipment he was using was in a good state of repair. 'This prosecution should remind duty holders that a failure to fulfil their obligations can have fatal consequences and they will be held accountable for this failure.' Metallurgical examination of the guardrail posts carried out during the investigation found differences in chemical composition, manufacturing, and wall thickness which indicated the posts were manufactured from two different tubing sections. The HSE found these welded sections were not a feature of the manufacture's original design, and appeared to have been modified while the loader was under the ownership of Prestwick Airport. The investigation also found the welds on both the guardrail posts contained defects which would allow moisture in, creating a corrosive environment and speeding up deterioration. It was also found that the maintenance programme in place at the time did not cover the parts of the guardrail where failure or deterioration could lead to health and safety risks. Graeme McMinn, HM principal inspector of health and safety, said: 'Employers have an absolute legal duty to ensure that equipment they use at work is maintained in an efficient state and in good repair and full working order. 'This incident is a tragic reminder of what can result when that does not happen.' Since the incident, Prestwick Airport has undertaken a review of all work at height, and checks of the guardrails on the platform loaders have been made part of the regular service and inspection schedule.
Yahoo
20 hours ago
- Yahoo
Dad guilty of murdering premature baby in hospital
Warning: This article contains details that some may find distressing, including details of severe injuries. A father has been found guilty of murdering his two-week old baby on a neonatal ward. Brendon Staddon, who was born prematurely at 33 weeks, suffered multiple injuries including a fractured skull, a broken neck, a broken jaw and broken legs in Yeovil District Hospital's special care baby unit on 5 March 2024. His father Daniel Gunter, 27, of no fixed address, denied harming him, but was convicted of murder at Bristol Crown Court earlier. He will be sentenced on 3 October. Brendon's mother, Sophie Staddon, was acquitted of a lesser charge of causing or allowing the death of a child and was told by the judge she "was free to go". A female juror was visibly upset as the foreman returned the verdicts and as she wiped tears away, she was comforted by two fellow jury members. The defendants showed no emotion as the verdicts were returned. Following the verdict, Brendon's grandfather Simon Gunter said his grandson - who the court was told weighed "less than a couple of bags of sugar" - had been "so tiny, but so beautiful". "As a family, we were so happy and excited," he said, explaining that the family had bought toys and clothes in their excitement for his arrival. "But, we have been robbed of a life of memories of Brendon," he added. "We won't get to see his first steps, hear his first words, take him on his first holiday and see him grow into a young boy then a man. We will never have those memories. They have been taken from us and he will never be replaced. "I hope Daniel gets what he deserves for what he did to Brendon but, whatever the outcome, it will never bring him back." 'Evil' During his short life, nursing staff at the Somerset hospital said they had many concerns about Brendon's parents' behaviour, particularly Gunter's repeated rough handling of him, Bristol Crown Court was told. The jury was told that while in hospital, Gunter repeatedly ignored the advice of nurses, taking Brendon out of the incubator without asking, overstimulating the child to the point of causing him distress, and removing his nasal gastric tube. A medical expert told the trial that Brendon's injuries were consistent with his head being swung against a hard surface "more than once" while he was held by his ankles. Ch Insp Nadine Partridge, of the major crime investigations team at Avon and Somerset Police, said the case was one of the most challenging of her 22-year career as a detective and described Gunter's actions as "evil". She said having to view the post-mortem injuries had been very distressing for investigators. "The extent of the injuries are nothing I've ever seen before. Brendon's little tiny precious body at just two weeks old, there wasn't any part of him that wasn't harmed," she said. The jury heard Gunter was seen getting angry with Brendon while changing his nappy and threatened to make formal complaints about nursing staff when they tried to intervene. Nurses also feared Ms Staddon was being controlled by Gunter because he would speak for her and order her meals, jurors were told. Brendon was born on 20 February, but the couple left the hospital on 29 February and did not return until the afternoon of 4 March. At about 04:00 GMT the following morning, Ms Staddon told nurses she had awoken to find Brendon "cold". Doctors think he would have been dead for at least 30 minutes before the alarm was raised. While doctors tried to resuscitate him, Gunter said he and Ms Staddon were going outside "for air" and they both went to smoke, the court heard. 'No remorse' Neither Gunter or Ms Staddon gave evidence during the trial. Ch Insp Partridge said Gunter had been more concerned about his phone and vape being taken when he was arrested, and had never asked after Brendon. "Daniel's not shown any remorse whatsoever on his arrest or during his police interviews," she said. Following the verdict she added: "Brendon was failed in life. In death, justice is the only protection we can still offer him. "Cases where both the victim and the defendant are related in some way are among the most challenging for us as police. "I would like to firstly give my condolences to Brendon's grandparents and their wider family, who we have supported through specialist family liaison officers." Following the verdict a spokesperson for Somerset NHS Foundation Trust said it has been an "incredibly distressing" case in which its colleagues gave evidence about their interactions with Gunter and Ms Staddon. "We are part of the Child Safeguarding Practice Review, along with other agencies, that will thoroughly examine the circumstances around baby Brendon's death," they added. "It is well underway and will be published in the autumn." Follow BBC Somerset on Facebook and X. Send your story ideas to us on email or via WhatsApp on 0800 313 4630. Related internet links HM Courts & Tribunals Service
