UK prosecutors charge 4 over toppling of slave trader statue

FILE - In this file photo dated Monday, June 8, 2020, people look at the empty pedestal after a statue of notorious slave trader Edward Colston was pulled down during a Black Lives Matter demo, in Bristol, England. Four people have been were charged with criminal damage over the toppling of the 17th-century slave trader Colston statue, according to an announcement Wednesday Dec. 9, 2020, by Britains Crown Prosecution Service. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, FILE) (Kirsty Wigglesworth, Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

LONDON – Four people were charged with criminal damage on Wednesday over the toppling of a statue of a 17th-century slave trader and public benefactor in the city of Bristol.

Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service said Rhian Graham, 29, Milo Ponsford, 25, Jake Skuse, 32, and 21-year-old Sage Willoughby are due to appear in court Jan. 25 for an initial hearing.

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The statue of Edward Colston was pulled from its plinth in the southwest England city during an anti-racism demonstration in June and dumped in Bristol harbor. Its toppling was part of protests in several countries against racism and slavery, sparked by the death of a Black American man, George Floyd, at the hands of police in Minneapolis in May.

Colston made a fortune transporting enslaved Africans across the Atlantic to the Americas on Bristol-based ships. He was a major benefactor to Bristol, with streets and institutions named for him, and the statue-felling sparked a debate about racism and historical commemoration.

City authorities fished the Colston statue out of the harbor and say it will be placed in a museum, along with placards from the Black Lives Matter demonstration.

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