A woman who poured human faeces on a memorial to Captain Tom in a climate protest could be facing jail.
The 21-year-old pleaded guilty to criminal damage to the life-size statue, created in the likeness of war veteran Captain Sir Tom Moore, who died in 2021.
Madeleine Budd, of Kedlestone Avenue, Longsight, carried out the stunt wearing a t-shirt that said 'End UK Private Jets' - footage of the incident was then posted on a Twitter account of the same name, reports The Manc.
The statue is located in Thistley Meadow, Hatton, south Derbyshire, and was placed there as a tribute to Captain Tom, who raised almost £33 million for NHS charities by walking lockdown laps of his garden in the run up to his 100th birthday.
He died with Covid-19 in February 2021, shortly after he was knighted by the Queen.
Budd was arrested in London on Sunday 2 October, and charged by Derbyshire Police on Monday with criminal damage to a war memorial to the value of £200.
She appeared at Westminster Magistrates Court yesterday, where she pleaded guilty.
Human faeces was poured on a Captain Tom Moore memorial by a climate protester. Credit: Twitter, @EndUKPrivateJets
Prosecutor Jordan Pratt told the court: "This offence lasted for a short amount of time, it is only 30 seconds in length but the impact of this offence is substantial."
He continued: "This is an abhorrent act. I do not need to remind the court of the impact that Sir Tom had.
"He was a figurehead that a number of people rallied around in a fundraising effort that raised tens of millions of pounds in the height of the pandemic."
In posts from the End UK Private Jets campaign group, Budd was quoted as saying: "Every time a private jet takes off, we pour a bucket of sh*t and blood on everything captain Tom stood for."
Budd was remanded in custody until her hearing on 25 October.
The tiramisu hype lives on, and this time it's coming to Leeds.
It really does feel like the traditional Italian dessert has taken the world by storm as of late.
Everything from tiramisu cups and tiramisu coffees have been popping up all over our feed, and now tiramisu in drawer form is popping up in the city centre.
Misu Tiramisu is an independent business that began at Manchester's Christmas Markets and quickly became one of the most popular operators, all thanks to its miniature tiramisu ‘drawers’.
Images: The Hoot Leeds
The individually portioned and colourfully packaged desserts quickly became one of town’s top puddings, and owners Aleem and Aishah went on to launch a stand inside the Manchester Arndale too.
And now they’re branching out again in Leeds inside Trinity shopping centre for a two month residency.
You’ll find all their delicious flavours of handmade tiramisu, including classic, pistachio, chocolate, Biscoff, mango, and lemon - they'll also have some gluten-free tiramisu on offer as well, so no one has to miss out.
Images: The Hoot Leeds
Misu Tiramisu owners Aleem and Aishah spent a year refining the recipe for their tiramisus after a trip to Milan, first launching with their first market stall in Sale.
Misu Tiramisu is now open inside Trinity shopping centre opposite Boots Opticians and Pop Specs.
They're open every day of the week for you to get your tiramisu fix, from 9am to 8pm Monday to Saturday and from 11am to 5pm on a Sunday.
And trust us Leeds, they're just as delicious as they are adorable.
Fossilised 320-million-year-old fish found in Leeds’ Roundhay Park
Clementine Hall
A prehistoric fish fossil has been unearthed at Roundhay Park in Leeds.
The fascinating prehistoric skull bone of a coelacanth fish was discovered by a geologist at Roundhay Park earlier this year.
It is thought the creature was frozen in time aeons ago, during an era when the park was submerged under a vast tropical lagoon.
The remarkable discovery has now been kindly donated to Leeds Museums and Galleries and added to the natural sciences collection at Leeds Discovery Centre.
Image: Leeds City Council
The Leeds fossil was found by Ru Smith of the Yorkshire Geological Society during a reconnaissance walk he was carrying out ahead of a planned field excursion in the north Leeds park.
Describing the moment he made the discovery, Ru said: “There’s a layer of rock in the park which dates from around 320 million years ago, from a time before the breakup of the continents, when what is now the park would have been situated close the Equator and under the warm waters of a tropical lagoon. West Central Africa would be a good place to find similar environments in the present.
“There’s a bed of freshwater mussels called Carbonicola at one level in the rock, and opening a piece of shale from this bed in my hands I saw something unusual – a distinctive skull bone of a large fish. I knew straight away this was something different and very rare."
The bone was verified byexperts as belonging to a coelacanth older than those found elsewhere in Yorkshire, making it the oldest fossil coelacanth discovered in the region.
Ru added: “Coelacanths are pretty amazing fish and it’s just very cool to think that at one time, you could have been standing in Leeds and watching them swim around above a bed of mussels in Roundhay Park.
“That’s really the wonder of geology, looking at the rock and time travelling in the imagination to what was a very different world.”
Daisy Jackson -
6th October 2022 
