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Police hope for ‘positive moves’ following Colston 4 verdicts
One of Avon & Somerset’s most senior police officers has told Bristol24/7 that she hopes “positive moves arise” following the not guilty verdicts in the Colston 4 trial.
Chief superintendent Liz Hughes justified the decision to bring the case against the four defendants to court.
Hughes also said that other people may still be prosecuted for their roles in the events of June 7 2020 despite a jury at Bristol Crown Court finding Rhian Graham, Milo Ponsford, Jake Skuse and Sage Willoughby not guilty of all charges against them.
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“Right from the start of this investigation we worked hard to gather all the evidence, to work with the Crown Prosecution Service and to present that evidence to the court,” said Hughes, head of Avon & Somerset police’s neighbourhood & partnerships directorate.
“I absolutely respect the decision of the jury today and feel that we have done our best to present that evidence. There’s no disappointment. That is the decision that they have made…
“This case has provoked a lot of dialogue in the city around equality and I hope that there are positive moves that arise from these conversations.”
Hughes added: “In the eyes of the law, there was always a clear offence of criminal damage in our investigation. That evidence has been tested and the result has been found to be not guilty.
“There’s absolutely no doubt that this case did polarise public opinion in terms of Edward Colston, the history and that lawful excuse to damage the statue.
“One of the key things that we had to do from the outset was to have a proportionate response in terms of different people’s roles that day when the statue was damaged.
“We originally identified 18 people that we wished to speak to. We’ve identified ten of those people, four have had their trial and six have received restorative justice options.
“At all times there was an absolute will to be transparent and proportionate to make sure that investigation was carried out.”
Colston’s statue was toppled during a Black Lives Matter march – photo: Martin Booth
So was it the right decision for the police to stand back and allow the statue to be toppled from its plinth and rolled into the docks?
“For many people who would have seen the digital media footage of the statue falling, you would see how quickly that happened, so I do consider that was the right decision to make sure for public safety reasons that we didn’t intervene at that point.”
Main photo: Martin Booth
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