A Black Lives Matter demonstration in Leeds, the UK on June 21, 2020 Photo: VCG

A British court cleared four people Wednesday of criminal damage for pulling down a statue of slave trader Edward Colston during a Black Lives Matter protest in Bristol in 2020.

The jury in the western English city cleared the defendants, three men and a woman, after they had pleaded not guilty.

The quartet admitted taking part in the protest that saw the colonial-era slave trader's statue thrown into Bristol harbor at the height of anti-racist protests in June 2020.

There were cheers from the packed public gallery as the verdicts were returned following a two-week trial.

Three of the defendants wore T-shirts designed by world-famous artist and Bristol native Banksy to raise funds for their legal fees.

Rhian Graham, Milo Ponsford, Jake Skuse and Sage Willoughby admitted their involvement but said that the statue of the 17th-century trader itself was a hate crime.

Three of the accused were caught on security camera footage attaching the ropes to the statue that were used to pull it down, while the fourth orchestrated the plan to throw it into the water.

Outside court, Graham thanked everyone who protested on the day "in the name of equality." "One thing we know now is that Colston does not represent us," she said.

The Bristol protests followed demonstrations in the US over the police killing of unarmed African-American father George Floyd.

The damage caused by the toppling of the statue was estimated at around 4,700 euros ($5,300).

Skuse's lawyer said that the defendants should never have been prosecuted.

"It is shameful that Bristol City Council did not take down the statue of slaver Edward Colston that had caused such offence to people in Bristol and equally shameful that they then supported the prosecution of these defendants," Raj Chada said in a statement.

The court was told that there had been campaigns in Bristol to have the statue removed since the 1920s.

Nobody in Bristol was arrested at the time of the statue toppling, with the four eventually charged in December 2020 with damaging property belonging to the council.

Around 19,000 of the slaves died on ships bound for the Americas and the Caribbean.

On Twitter, Save Our Statues said that the verdict "not only gives the green light to political vandalism, but also legitimizes the divisive identity politics it helped succor."

AFP