EXCLUSIVE Revealed: Eco-zealot who poured bucket of human waste over Captain Tom’s statue received six month conditional discharge for trying to glue hands to goalposts during Arsenal v Liverpool pitch invasion
- EXCLUSIVE: Eco-zealot Maddie Budd, 21, arrested when protester tried to glue themselves to goalposts
- She was given a conditional discharge after invading the pitch at Arsenal vs Liverpool game on March 16
- Budd was seen in video pouring faeces over the Captain Sir Tom Moore in Hatton, Derbyshire last month
- The former medical student, from Wales, carried out the act in protest of over the use of private jets
- Budd was also previously arrested last year while protesting with doctors for Extinction Rebellion
- She was remanded in custody ahead of sentencing due to ‘substantial’ risk she could commit another offence
- Read more: Eco-warrior prompts fury over private jet protest that saw faeces poured on memorial
An eco-zealot who desecrated Captain Tom’s memorial was free to do it after being ‘let off’ for a pitch invasion of the Arsenal vs Liverpool game where she wanted to glue her hands to the goalposts.
Maddie Budd, 21, had been arrested at the Emirates during the Premier League clash on March 16.
MailOnline can reveal she had managed to get onto the pitch as she pushed to get to the goals, where a fellow campaigner had just reached.
But the security stewards managed to intercept and contain her for the police to arrest.
Her protester friend Kai Bartlett was pictured attempting the same act at the goal posts and was also detained. He later set his arm on fire at the Laver Cup in London.
A source told MailOnline: ‘Maddie wanted to glue her hands to the posts as a form of protest too at the Arsenal game.
‘But she was caught by stewards before she got anywhere near.
‘They found a tube of superglue near the pitch near where she was found.’
It is understood she was given a six-month conditional discharge, which expired only yesterday.
Maddie, who currently lives in south Enfield, was remanded in custody on Tuesday after pleading guilty to pouring human excrement over a memorial to pandemic hero Captain Sir Tom Moore.
Eco-zealot Maddie Budd, 21, arrested where protester tried to glue themselves to goalposts at a Premier League match
Pitch invader Kai Bartlett was seen wearing a T-shirt displaying a message saying stop the oil during Arsenal vs Liverpool
Former medical student Maddie Budd, 21, filmed herself pouring a bucket of human excrement over a memorial to Captain Sir Tom Moore in a protest over the use of private jets
Maddie Budd, 21, was also previously arrested last year while protesting with doctors for Extinction Rebellion in London
She was arrested in London on Sunday over the attack at the memorial in Hatton, Derbyshire.
District Judge Louisa Cieciora said the starting point for sentencing following her guilty plea could be 18 months’ imprisonment.
She also today declined an application for bail ahead of the sentencing hearing, telling the court she has ‘substantial grounds’ to believe Budd would commit another offence.
Budd was remanded in custody while a pre-sentence report is carried out ahead of her sentencing on October 25.
Footage of the stunt, carried out for the pressure group End UK Private Jets, showed her drenching the monument – which honours the 100-year-old World War Two vet who raised £33million for the NHS during lockdown – in urine and faeces.
Prosecutor Jordan Pratt told Westminster Magistrates Court yesterday: ‘On September 30 the defendant attended a location in Hatton where there is a statue of Sir Captain Tom Moore.
‘The statue is situated in a public area next to a road. She approached the statue and poured a bucket of human faeces all over this statue.
‘She was wearing a white t-shirt which said “End UK Private Jets”. This act was filmed. It has already been seen by a number of people. This is an abhorrent act.
‘I need not remind the court of the impact that Tom Moore had. He was a figurehead who people rallied round to raise tens of millions of pounds walking round his garden at the height of the pandemic.’
Budd, of no fixed address, will attend her next hearing at Westminster Magistrates Court on October 25, she was remanded in custody in the meantime.
Ms Budd’s father told MailOnline on Sunday he was ‘ashamed of her’ and ‘sick with shock’ when he saw what she had done.
Budd was previously arrested in London in September 2021 while protesting with doctors and health care professionals for Extinction Rebellion.
The vandalised memorial was in memory of Captain Sir Tom Moore, who made international headlines in 2020 when he raised money for charity in the run-up to his 100th birthday during the Covid-19 pandemic
Budd tried to justify her desecration of the memorial by claiming that ‘every time one [private jet] takes off, it pours a bucket of sh*t and blood onto everything that Captain Tom stood for’
End UK Private Jets confirmed Budd’s arrest on Twitter
Budd was arrested in London while attending a protest with other End UK Private Jets members, a group spokesperson alleged. She was reportedly escorted out of the rally by 18 police officers.
The activist’s father, Jim Budd, 62, told MailOnline his daughter had ‘gone rogue’ after dropping out of medical school to become a full-time eco-warrior, giving up her career.
Father-of-six Mr Budd, an award-winning glazier, said he had felt sick when he saw the video of her defiling Captain Tom’s image. Mr Budd said he and his charity worker wife Harriet, 63, had messaged Budd after they realised what she had done but received no reply.
Speaking from their home near Kington on the England-Wales border, he told MailOnline close to tears: ‘The shock of this is hurting people and upsetting them.
‘I’m ashamed of her and what she has done. There has been a big public reaction for obvious reasons. I don’t think she understands what the hell she was unleashing.
‘She’s done something horrible without thinking of the consequences.’
Captain Sir Tom Moore raises a thumb aloft in celebration for his incredible work to raise money for the NHS
Jim Budd, the father of eco warrior shown on video making a protest about private jets said he was ashamed and felt sick when he saw it
He added: ‘I felt sick with shock when I saw it – I have sent her a text message but she has not replied.
‘It goes against all the things you install in your children – it is not normal behaviour. I’m extremely sad. The fact is she has sort of gone rogue.’
Until recently Maddie had been at medical school in Manchester ahead of an expected career with the NHS.
But she dropped out to devote all her time to protesting over climate change after developing an initial interest at a young age.
Her father added it was ‘understandable’ for the police to investigate what he called ‘an act of desecration’.
He said: ‘I can’t really apologise on her behalf. Sir Tom was clearly a national hero and the country resonated with his fantastic and amazing actions.
‘However shocking the future of climate change predictions are, I don’t think it was her duty to desecrate his memory in the way she has.
‘Her motivations are very real but misplaced. The fact is she has gone rogue, so to speak.
‘When people are young and vulnerable they can go down roads they would not do later in life. It is a horrible thing to have happened and people are obviously upset.
‘It is very hard to understand how young people can feel so threatened by climate change that they can carry out such extreme actions.
‘But I’m not making excuses for her. She has made a terrible mistake. We were horrified, it’s an ongoing worry.’
Mr Budd feels Maddie should be working in a legitimate climate change action group rather than carrying out solo acts of desecration.
He said: ‘Young people do feel desperate and my daughter feels more desperate than most. Her actions were ill judged and awful – this is horrible for any parent to go through.
How Sir Captain Tom’s heroic actions boosted Britain amid lockdown
Sir Captain Tom Moore hoped to raise £1,000 for the NHS, but ended up capturing the hearts of the nation.
Here’s how 100 laps around his garden became a knighthood…
April 2020 The army veteran begins fundraising in the hope of raising £1,000 for the NHS amid the coronavirus pandemic. He wants to walk 100 laps of his garden before his 100th birthday on April 30.
April 14 More than £2million is donated.
April 15 The total rises to £7million as more than 340,000 people show their support.
April 16 He completes his 100 laps – meaning he walked an average of six laps a day – and reveals he’s going to keep going to raise as much as possible. Both the Prime Minister and the Royal Family congratulate him.
April 24 Sir Captain Tom is the oldest person ever to reach Number One in the Top 40 Charts with his cover of You’ll Never Walk Alone. He performs it alongside singer Michael Ball and The NHS Voices of Care Choir.
April 30 The fundraising page hits £32million on his 100th birthday. He is made an honorary colonel and enjoys a military flypast.
July 17 The Queen awards him a knighthood in a special engagement.
September He writes bestselling autobiography Tomorrow Will Be A Good Day and signs a deal to film a biopic of his life.
October 5 – Captain Tom starts a podcast to tackle isolation among Britain’s elderly.
December He ticks a holiday to Barbados off his bucket list.
January 31, 2021 He is admitted to hospital amid an intense battle with pneumonia, his family reveal.
February 2, 2021 Sir Captain Tom’s death is announced days after he tests positive for coronavirus.
My wife is really upset. ‘My daughter has given up her career to become a full-time protestor because she feels that strongly. So there’s quite a long lead up to this.
‘Her intentions were to draw attention to this crisis when seemingly no one else does.
‘But this particular action is counter-productive and has done nothing but upset a lot of people. I’m ashamed of her and what she has done.
Video of the stunt had been passed to Derbyshire Police by the company who made the memorial, AGC Fabrications.
Budd filmed herself pouring the canister of faeces and urine over the memorial to the late captain, who made international headlines in 2020 when he raised millions for charity in the run-up to his 100th birthday during the Covid-19 pandemic.
And in a bizarre justification she later filed a video declaring: ‘People are going to say that he’s a hero, people are going to say that this is profoundly, obscenely disrespectful to his life, and to the NHS he stood up for and I agree.
‘I was studying to become a doctor because I believe in taking care of people. If we believe that the NHS is important, if we believe in taking care of each other, if we believe that NHS workers are doing essential work, why are forcing our healthcare system into collapse, why are we forcing our civilisation into collapse, why is basically no-one taking this genocide of all humanity seriously?
‘All of this is true and the Government won’t even end UK private jets, every time one takes off, it pours a bucket of sh** and blood onto everything that Captain Tom stood for’
Captain Tom began to walk 100 lengths of his garden at the age of 99 in 2020, with the aim of raising £1,000 for NHS charities by his 100th birthday on April 30.
However, thanks to media appearances, his efforts caught the imagination of the nation and by his birthday he had raised over £30million. He was considered a national treasure by his death on February 2, 2021 after catching Covid.
The video showing Budd pouring faeces over the memorial to the beloved captain, who was awarded a flypast by the RAF and British Army on his 100th birthday and was even knighted by the Queen, has prompted predictable outrage from the public.
‘How will this convince people to earn private jet use?’ wrote one Twitter user. ‘It looks like a child throwing a disgusting tantrum and being beyond disrespectful. This kind of behavior will not convince anyone to make any changes.’
Another wrote: ‘Hope she gets jail time for this. Not helping your cause at all, if anything I’m now against you and your cause. Disgusting honestly you should be distancing yourselves from this disgraceful behaviour not supporting it.’
While a third raised questions about why Budd is no longer a medical student.
‘Former medical student? What is she now? Or is that just too embarrassing to publicise.’
And a person who claims to have gifted the memorial said they would be pursuing Budd for vandalism.
‘We will work with the police to ensure this taken as far as possible.’
According to her Facebook page, Budd was arrested in September last year in London while protesting with doctors and health care professionals for Extinction Rebellion.
Emissions from flights are known to be significantly worse than any other form of transport, and private jets generally produce significantly more emissions per passenger than commercial flights.
Many celebrities have been pulled up for their private jet use, with one of Kylie Jenner’s flights reportedly lasting an offensively short 17 minutes.
It is estimated that her 17-minute jaunt would’ve resulted in a ton of carbon dioxide emissions.
While in itself not a huge amount, it is about a quarter of the total annual carbon footprint of the average person globally.
During the COP26 climate change summit in Glasgow last year, there was a total of 76 flights involving private jets, or VIP flights, arriving in and around Glasgow in the four days leading up to November 1.
Source: Read Full Article
