Petition demands Colston 4 retrial after ‘miscarriage of justice’

A petition started on Thursday to demand an appeal or even a retrial following the acquittal of the Colston 4 has already been signed by more than 3,000 people.

Started by the campaign group Save Our Statues, the petition says that the not guilty verdict in Bristol Crown Court “sets a dangerous precedent that endangers all of our national heritage”.

The petition reads: “We the undersigned believe that a miscarriage of justice has taken place with significant public interest enough to warrant an appeal or retrial. The acquittal of those who toppled the Colston statue in Bristol sets a dangerous precedent that endangers all of our national heritage, legitimising direct physical action against it. This way lies chaos and mob rule. The jury was also intimidated by the defence warning them that the world was watching their decision.”

The petition comes as Bristol mayor Marvin Rees said that he “was quite surprised” at Wednesday’s Colston 4 verdict.

But speaking on Times Radio, he said: “I didn’t have much reaction at all to be perfectly honest with you.”

Rees added: “People ask me my view on the verdict and I said, it’s not something we’ve been thinking about. I don’t spend my time in this office wondering, I haven’t spent it over the last few months tracking the trial, following the arguments.

“Because it really has very little to do with the everyday task we’ve got in the city of driving ambition and building an inclusive economy.

“The fate of the self-styled Colston 4 has nothing to do with tackling race inequality.”

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Read more: Jubilant and emotional scenes in Bristol as Colston 4 acquitted

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In a statement, Avon & Somerset police & crime commissioner, Mark Shelford, said: “While I support our criminal justice system, I know many people will feel unhappy with the outcome given the fact that damage was undeniably committed. However, due process has now taken place.

“The right to peaceful protest is enshrined in British law and I will continue to support the role of the police in facilitating that right. I would, however, remind our communities never to take the law into their own hands; if they do, I would expect the police to respond robustly and proportionately and prosecute those involved.

“We do not want to live in a lawless society and I actively encourage residents to follow democratic routes to make changes in their villages, towns and cities.”

In Westminster, Sir John Hayes MP, who leads the Common Sense Group, described the verdict as “very disappointing” and said that the trial should never have been heard in Bristol.

“This should have been a straightforward matter for the jury, who were certainly devoid of understanding of the definition of criminal damage,” Hayes told the Daily Mail.

“If you damage, destroy of deface property without permission, you are guilty by definition.”

‘Clearly, the wrong decision has been made here. The case should never have even been heard at crown court, nor should it have been heard in Bristol considering the rhetoric surrounding this trial.”

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Read more: Colston 4 barrister: ‘The prosecution was not in the public interest in any shape or form’

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Transport secretary Grant Shapps said the UK was “not a country where destroying public property can ever be acceptable”.

Shapps told Times Radio: “We live in a democratic country. If you want to see things changed you can get them changed, you do that through the ballot box, or petitioning your local council.

“You don’t do it by going out and causing criminal damage.

“We’ll always be on the side of the law and when necessary we will fix any loopholes in the law to make sure that’s always the case.”

David Olusoga was called by the defence to give evidence as part of the Colston 4 trial – photo: Martin Booth

Speaking to Good Morning Britain, Bristol historian David Olusoga, who gave evidence in the Colston 4 trial, said the jury had considered the information “directly rather than through tabloids or journalists or politicians”.

He said this had enabled them to “actually react to the evidence rather than to the culture war drum beat that is built around it”.

Olusoga added: “Most people don’t understand the details of this history, of this statue, and the long campaign to have it removed peacefully. That statue standing there for 125 years was validating the career of a mass murderer.

“And to people whose ancestors were enslaved by Colston and men like him, it is offensive, and you can talk to thousands of people in Bristol who found it offensive.”

Main photo: Martin Booth

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