A statue of Queen Elizabeth’s great-great grandmother has been vandalised in Paisley town centre just days before her funeral.
The sombre-looking Queen Victoria statue in Dunn Square was sprayed with graffiti saying ‘Abolish the monarchy’, while other monuments were were also sprayed with offensive messages.
The act of mindless vandalism was first spotted by a Buddie who captured the image and shared it on social media.
The picture was shared on Facebook by Jackie Cruickshanks and captioned “Where is Paisley’s CCTV?’.
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One Paisley man, who saw the graffiti before it was washed off, said: “The council workers cleaning it told me the statues had only been cleaned on Tuesday, so this must have happened overnight into Wednesday.
“There is CCTV everywhere in the centre of Paisley, so hopefully whoever did this will be caught.
“It has certainly caught people’s attention.
“One old man said to me, ‘Who in their right mind would do something like that’ before he went and thanked the council workers for cleaning it.”
The Queen’s funeral on Monday will be at Westminster Abbey, and tributes from across Renfrewshire have been paid to her since she passed away last Thursday.
Paisley people have taken to Facebook to display their disgust at the graffiti.
One said: “OMG. How disrespectful is that”, with another saying “Disgusting vandalism” with another commenting “Definitely have CCTV in that area. Good luck to the t**t for this vandalism.”
The Paisley Scotland Facebook page, run by Paisley.org.uk also vented frustration.
A statement says: “We only ever post positive things on our groups but look at this graffiti - people are either giving up on the state of the town at present or using this as a political statement.
“It is not on and this makes me sick to the core.
“To those mindless idiots who sprayed this on, plenty of CCTV is about. I hope you are caught and punished, scumbags.”
Renfrewshire Council staff were on the scene quickly yesterday to clean up the statues.
A spokesman said: “We responded immediately to a report of offensive graffiti and it has been removed from this statue.”
Paisley Community Trust blasted the ‘attack of vandalism’.
In a statement, a spokesman said: “We wouldn’t dare make any comment, one way or another, on any individual or group’s constitutional motivations.
“However, It would be preferable if a protest or feelings wanted to be construed in any way, the fabrics of our town remained immune to any attacks of vandalism.”
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