‘Antithesis of everything Paddington stands for’:judge scolds statue vandals

The actions of two Royal Air Force engineers who tore a newly installed Paddington Bear statue in half before stealing it were “the antithesis of everything Paddington stands for”, a judge has said.

- MATHILDE GRANDJEAN

Daniel Heath and William Lawrence, who are both 22 and work as engineers at RAF Odiham in Hampshire, had been drinking when they damaged the statue in Newbury at 2am on 2 March.

CCTV footage played to Reading Magistrates’ Court showed them approaching the Paddington Bear statue on Northbrook Street before teaming up in an attempt to rip the bear off the bench.

They are then seen walking off with part of the damaged statue. The pair carried the statue through the town and into a taxi, which took them back to their base at RAF Odiham, the court heard.

Heath of Oakhall Park, Thornton, West Yorkshire, and Lawrence, of John Street, Enderby, Leicestershire, were sentenced to a 12-month community order yesterday after admitting criminal damage.

District judge Sam Goozee condemned their actions as “an act of wanton vandalism”.