Eco-activist who faced four years behind bars for pouring human excrement over Derbyshire statue of Captain Sir Tom Moore spared jail

Medical school dropout Madeleine Budd, 21, was arrested at a protest in London on 2 October this year two days after carrying out the sickening stunt.

She had faced a much harsher punishment under the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 than she would have done in the past that could have seen her facing years in jail.

But she was freed from custody after telling the probation service her actions had not worked and she wanted to find “better ways” to protest. Instead her 21-week jail term was suspended for 18 months. Westminster Magistrates Court heard today that she used human waste from the chemical toilet in her caravan to launch the dirty protest.

Shocking footage of the demonstration by campaign group End UK Private Jets showed Budd defacing the monument to the 100-year-old World War Two veteran who raised more than £33 million for the NHS during the pandemic by walking around his back garden. The captain’s family said they were deeply saddened after the footage began circulating online.

Budd filmed herself pouring a canister containing faeces and urine over the life-sized memorial to the late officer statue in Thistley Meadow, Hatton, in Derbyshire, who shot to fame in 2020 when he raised millions for good causes. She was wearing a T-shirt bearing the words ‘End UK Private Jets’.

Budd later declared in a video: "People are going to say that he's a hero, people are going to say that this is profoundly, obscenely disrespectful to his life, and to the NHS he stood up for and I agree.

"I was studying to become a doctor because I believe in taking care of people. If we believe that the NHS is important, if we believe in taking care of each other, if we believe that NHS workers are doing essential work, why are forcing our healthcare system into collapse, why are we forcing our civilisation into collapse, why is basically no-one taking this genocide of all humanity seriously? All of this is true and the Government won't even end UK private jets, every time one takes off, it pours a bucket of sh** and blood onto everything that Captain Tom stood for."

Police began a probe after the campaign group posted the video on its social media pages and Budd was charged on October 3.

She admitted one count of criminal damage to a war memorial and one count of breaching a conditional discharge when she appeared at Westminster Magistrates Court a day later. Appearing in the dock of the same court today, wearing a large brown jumper, she spoke only to confirm her name, date of birth and to give her address as no fixed abode.

The activist, who used to live in Manchester but now lives in a van, showed little visible emotion during the hearing which lasted about an hour. The public gallery was packed full of her supporters who could be seen crying and hugging each other outside the courtroom when she was spared jail.

Jordan Pratt, prosecuting, told an earlier hearing she could face a longer spell in jail under the new laws than she would have done in the past. The legislation, designed to clamp down on eco-protestors and to protect 'problematic' statues from vandalism, was the subject of “Kill the Bill” protests last year. Before the bill became law she would have faced a maximum of three months behind bars.

He said: "This is an either way offence (which can be dealt with at a Crown or magistrates court) even though the value is under £5,000. Section 50 of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act says that acts committed against a war memorial of any type become an either way offence.

"This was an abhorrent act and I should not have to remind this court of the impact Captain Sir Tom Moore had.

“He was a figurehead and a number of people rallied around his fundraising efforts to raise tens of millions of pounds, by walking laps of his garden in the height of the pandemic.

“He was very successful at fundraising and raised a huge amount of money in order to help ease the burden for all of us in the pandemic.

“There was a high degree of planning and pre-meditation- she armed herself with a large amount of human faeces and turned it on to a statue. This is not a spur of the moment thing.

“There was a serious social impact to this offence. I imagine there will be a wide social outcry as a result of the commission of it. The value was low, but this case is not about the value at all. It is about the social impact it had. The officer in the case said she is a kind of ‘gun for hire’ who will get involved in any cause and will go to extreme lengths. There is no suggestion she is being paid for that.”

He told the earlier hearing the seriousness of her offending would merit a sentence of between one and four years, with a “starting point” of 18 months.

David Burns, who prosecuted the hearing, made few representations other than to repeat the facts of the case again.

He said: “Captain Sir Tom Moore was such a high-profile figure who touched many lives that the faeces poured over his statue has caused immense distress.”

Budd's lawyer, Katie McFadden, claimed her client would end up vindicated like the Suffragettes. She told the court: “Her thought process was one of moral disruption, to try and make people feel something, to try and get a visceral reaction so that people would stand up and start to take notice of the climate crisis.

“It appears Budd lives in a caravan with chemical toilets and the degree of planning was not the same as has been suggested given that it was freely available to her in her home. She did take action to clean the statue with water and tissue paper following the action she took. The court should consider the public interest as well as public opinion.

“If the defence was given the opportunity we could provide many statements from members of the public who are very concerned about the dire nature of the climate emergency and suggest she be leniently sentenced. It is not for the court to sentence on the basis of the opinions of individual members of the public. The European case law says causing offence cannot justify an immediate custodial sentence.”

The lawyer claimed Budd’s rights under the European Convention on Human Rights, which is incorporated into UK law through the Human Rights Act, would be breached if she was jailed.

Budd had dropped out of medical school to concentrate on climate protests, where she did “as much as she possibly could” to raise awareness of climate change, her lawyer added. However she also said Budd did not pose any danger to the public, was remorseful and would not re-offend.

District Judge Louisa Ciecora told her: “You clearly thought about what would cause the maximum amount of outrage and publicity. You may have had easier access to the substance than many people will have had but you still needed to prepare it for transport and use. Although the substance was deliberately chosen to be as demeaning and disrespectful as possible, it can be fairly easily cleaned.

“Given that you told probation your actions have not achieved what you thought and you want to find a better way of affecting change, I am just about persuaded I can suspend your sentence.”

She was told to complete 30 rehabilitation days and must pay £200 compensation for the work needed to repair the statue, a £154 victim surcharge and £85 costs.

No separate penalty was imposed for breaching the conditional discharge, which was imposed when she was convicted of a pitch invasion at the Oval cricket ground.