Sunderland's Sir Henry Havelock statue in Mowbray Park vandalised with words 'racist' and 'parasite'
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The statue, which is situated in Mowbray Park, was added to the 'Topple the Racists' list which includes monuments which campaigners claim ‘celebrate slavery and racism’, after a statue of slave trader, Edward Colston, was pushed into a river in Bristol.
An investigation has now been launched by Northumbria Police after the statue was targeted overnight and council staff have this morning cleaned the graffiti from the statue.
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Hide AdPetitions have been launched on the Change.org website, with one calling for a review into the statue and another calling for the the statue to be protected from harm.
Crowds gathered in Mowbray Park on Saturday, June 13 to guard the war memorial as violent scenes broke out in cities across the UK.
Now the Henry Havelock statue has been vandalised with red paint scrawled across the base with the words ‘racist' and ‘parasite’.
General Havelock was a Sunderland-born military leader during the period of the British Empire and is particularly associated with battles in India where he died in 1857.
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Hide AdAs well as the statue in Mowbray Park, Havelock has also been immortalised with a statue in Trafalgar Square.
A clean up effort is now ongoing by Sunderland City Council with early pictures showing a large splash of paint at the base of the statue.
A Northumbria Police spokesperson said: “Shortly after 9am today, Tuesday, June 16, we received a report of criminal damage in Mowbray Park, Sunderland.
“It was reported that overnight offenders had defaced a statue with graffiti.
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Hide Ad“An investigation is ongoing into the incident. Anyone with information is asked to ring 101 or contact us via the ‘Tell Us Something’ page of our website quoting reference 192 160620.”
Bosses at Sunderland City Council have promised to have a ‘conversation’ with the public on the future of Wearside’s monuments, including the Havelock statue.
The Sunderland’s Conservative opposition group has launched a petition, now signed by more than 1,200 people, demanding the city council ‘reject any calls to remove them and to ensure that mobs do not destroy them’.