Sir Captain Tom Moore at his home in Marston Moretaine, Bedfordshire
(Picture: PA Archive)An eco-protestor who poured human waste over a memorial for Sir Captain Tom Moore is facing prison after admitting criminal damage.
Madeleine Budd, 21, was filming carrying out the sickening stunt in Hatton, south Derbyshire, as she covered the life-sized outline of the World War Two veteran with human faeces.
Budd, wearing a t-shirt bearing the slogan ‘End UK Private Jets’, then made a speech to camera about her cause.
At Westminster magistrates court on Tuesday, Budd - dubbed a “gun for hire” for environmental causes - appeared in the dock to plead guilty to criminal damage.
She spoke softly to confirm her identity, and was denied the chance to make a speech from the dock as the hearing ended.
District Judge Louisa Cieciora adjourned sentencing until October 25 and remanded Budd into custody for the next three weeks.
On hearing that the activist was not being released from prison, a man in the public gallery stood up and said to the judge: “On behalf of every veteran, Ma’am, thank you very much.”
The court heard Budd has been linked to a series of environmental protest groups, and is suspected of plot to set herself on fire at the Oval cricket ground.
She is likely to be sentenced for the Sir Tom Moore protest under tougher sentencing guidelines brought in by the Police, Crime, Sentencing, and Courts Act, which introduced a maximum ten-year sentence for vandalism a memorial.
The judge said she had made a preliminary assessment that Budd could face between six months and four years in prison.
Sir Tom shot to national fame when he raised almost £33m for NHS charities during the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic by walking laps of his garden aged 100.
He was later knighted by the Queen before he died with Covid-19 in February 2021.
Prosecutor Jordan Pratt told the court Budd carried out the stunt on September 30, when she “approached the statue of Captain Sir Tom Moore and poured a bucket of human faeces all over this statue.
“While doing so, she was wearing a t-shirt saying the words ‘End UK Private Jets’. This act was filmed by somebody and shared on social media sites.
“It has already been seen by a number of people and reported on in a number of news outlets.”
He said while the incident only lasted 30 seconds he called the impact “incredibly substantial”.
“This is an abhorrent act”, Mr Pratt said. “I need not remind the court of the impact Captain Sir Tom Moore had.
“He was a figurehead a number of people rallied around in a fundraising effort, to raise tens of millions of pounds, by walking around laps of his garden at the height of the pandemic.
“He was successful in raising a huge amount of money in order to help ease the burden for all of us in the pandemic.
“There was a video filmed where the defendant said ‘after this people are going to say he is a hero. People are going to say this is extremely disrespectful to his life and the things he stood up for. I agree with that’.”
Mr Pratt said the incident was pre-planned, and he called Budd a “gun for hire” in the eco-campaigning world.
“She is not someone who supports just one cause”, he said. “She gets involved in every cause she can, and goes to extreme lengths in the commission of offences.
“She is currently under investigation for a number of offences – one of aggravated trespass and also conspiring to commit a public nuisance.”
He added that Budd is believed to have plotted to attend the Oval cricket ground “with the intention of setting fire to herself”.
The judge ordered a pre-sentence report and refused Budd bail over fears she would commit further offences.
The court heard she has been living in a van in the Enfield area of London.
