A Paddington Bear statue which was destroyed by vandals has been fully repaired and returned to its home town.
The sculpture in Newbury, Berkshire, was damaged last month when two Royal Air Force engineers broke it in half after a night out and made off with part of it.
Daniel Heath and William Lawrence, both 22 and engineers at RAF Odiham in Hampshire, were sentenced for criminal damage at Reading Magistrates’ Court and ordered to pay £2,725 each towards the costs of repairing it.
The rebuilt statue was unveiled in the town centre on Wednesday, with locals expressing their joy at the beloved character being brought back home.
Among those at the unveiling ceremony was Anthony George, who said he was “devastated” when the statue was damaged and decided to immortalise Paddington with a tattoo on his leg.
The 64-year-old, from Hungerford in Berkshire, said he got the tattoo three weeks before the official return of the statue to Newbury.
“I’m very proud of it,” he said.
“I just want to symbolise what a wonderful fictional character Paddington is.
“I grew up with Paddington, so it means a lot.
“It clearly says on his name tag ‘Look after me’, or words to that effect, and hopefully people will adhere to that: be kind.
“Unfortunately the other two that vandalised it weren’t very kind.”
He added: “When I heard what happened, I was absolutely devastated.
“Such a shame and everyone loves Paddington – apart from Daniel and William. My dad was in the RAF, they’re in the RAF – my dad would have been mortified.”
CCTV footage played to the court showed the men approaching the statue late at night before ripping the bear off its bench and walking away with it.
District judge Sam Goozee condemned Heath and Lawrence’s actions, calling them “the antithesis of everything Paddington stands for”.
Inspector Alan Hawkett, from Thames Valley Police, said the success of the investigation into the vandalism came from “a real community effort”.
He said: “It wouldn’t have been possible without the help of the community: people posting on the Facebook pages, reporting what they had seen and what they heard, the town centre businesses checking their CCTV for us, the local taxi companies as well.
“It was a real community effort that brought about the return of Paddington.”
Marc Giles and Ty Cosway, from the Special Constabulary team, said they worked for 15 continuous hours to retrieve the broken half of the Paddington Bear statue.
“When we arrived on the scene, it was about three seconds before someone approached us and said ‘Oh, you’re here for Paddington’,” Mr Giles said.
Mr Cosway added: “Some kids were coming up to us while we were walking from business to business doing our CCTV inquiries, and you start to get a bit more of an idea of the impact.
“It might seem on the surface as a localised case of criminal damage, but the community impact was massive.”
Mr Giles said: “We ourselves were shocked by it, and it made us feel even more proud to have brought him back.”
After the interview, a little boy came to hug the two constables and said: “Thank you for bringing him home.”
Dominika Zydron, 39, who lives in Newbury, attended the unveiling ceremony with her two children Joanna, nine, and Stasiu, four.
She said: “We came here especially to see him and welcome him home. We are very excited.
“We walk by this road every single day and say hello to Paddington, so when he was missing it was very sad for us.”
Kerrie Newton, 49, also from Newbury, came to see the repaired statue with her daughter Evelyn, nine, and her son Henry, six.
She said: “It’s great to have him home.
“He’s brought a lot of joy to Newbury when he was first here and it really upset everybody in town that he was sadly taken from us.
“It means a lot that he’s come back quickly.
“It’s a little bit of happiness in this crazy world.”
Michael Bond, the author and creator of Paddington, was born in Newbury. The statue is one of 23 located across the UK and Ireland as part of the Paddington Visits Trail.
