Bombay Durpun - Animal rights activists sentenced for Buckingham Palace fountain protest

The five protesters were convicted of causing £7,080 ($9,234) of damage to the Queen Victoria Memorial water feature in central London in August 2021.

Prosecutors said the dye turned the water red to "create the impression of a bloodbath", staining the stonework. Cleaning took 64 hours, they added.

Judge Gregory Perrins told the protesters they "displayed a high degree of arrogance that you were in the right, that your views were all that mattered and that the consequences of your actions were a price worth paying for the promotion of your cause".

The targeting of a "culturally significant monument" was designed to ensure "maximum publication" for their cause, he added.

One of those convicted, Christopher Bennett, 33, was handed an 18-month prison sentence, to run concurrently with another he is serving for causing a public nuisance.

The other four were given 18-month jail sentences, suspended for two years, meaning they risk being jailed if they offend during that time. They were also ordered to pay compensation.

One of the four, Louis McKechnie, was described as a "seasoned protester". The judge warned him that he would face a "severe" jail term if he re-offended.

"You have been extremely fortunate to have been dealt with relatively leniently by the courts in the past," Perrins said.

In 2022, McKechnie glued himself to the frame of a Vincent van Gogh painting at a London gallery and told AFP he was prepared to be "public enemy number one" over his direct actions.

The five activists, who had denied criminal damage but were found guilty at trial in August, had been seeking to draw attention to the use of Crown land for hunting and animal farming.

The UK has seen a string of headline-grabbing stunts over recent years, from mass traffic disruption caused by protesters scaling bridges or motorway gantries, to attacks on art works or historic sites.

The latest case follows long sentences handed out to five Just Stop Oil activists, including the climate group's founder Roger Hallam, earlier this year.

They were each given between four and five years in jail in July for conspiring to plan protests that blocked a motorway.

UN experts criticised the "severe" sentences handed to climate protesters after two Just Stop Oil activists were jailed in April 2023 for two and three years after scaling the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge over the River Thames at Dartford, east of London.

In a letter last year to the government, UN special rapporteur for climate change Ian Fry warned the sentences could stifle protest and were "significantly more severe than previous sentences imposed for this type of offending in the past".

R.Khurana--BD