UK: Four plead not guilty in case of toppled slave trader statue

Group charged with criminal damage over Edward Colston statue says stunt was an expression of free speech, but judge warns against ‘wholly unmeritorious’ arguments.

Three men and a woman pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to a charge of criminal damage over their alleged role in the toppling of a statue of 17th-century slave trade magnate Edward Colston in Bristol in southwest England last year. The statue was pulled down and tossed into Bristol harbour during an anti-racism demonstration on June 7 that was part of a global wave of Black Lives Matter protests. The toppling of the statue led to other memorials of figures linked to the slave trade being taken down or their future being debated, triggering a backlash from government ministers who said this amounted to censoring history.