What criminal damage would you like to make a statement with - or can this one not be bettered?
Headless Thatcher divides the jury
Sarah Hall Wednesday December 18, 2002 The Guardian
For some 25 years, she has divided the nation - as either our greatest prime minister bar Churchill, or the premier who fragmented a society she insisted did not exist. Yesterday, Margaret Thatcher even succeeded in splitting a jury tasked with deciding if it was legally justifiable to wield a pole at her statue and to "lop off" her head.
For three hours and 46 minutes, the eight women and four men at Southwark crown court were locked in deliberations as they questioned whether Paul Kelleher had a "lawful excuse" for taking a cricket bat and stanchion to the £150,000 marble sculpture with the deliberate intention of decapitating it.
Defending himself, Mr Kelleher, 37, an events organiser from Isleworth, west London, admitted "there was no dispute" he had "lopped off" the head of the 7ft statue at London's Guildhall gallery on July 3 - a case of criminal damage.
But he insisted he was acting lawfully since this was a justifiable protest against her political ideology, and an act "of artistic expression and satirical humour".
Directing the jury, Mr Justice Aikens said they could only decide that Mr Kelleher was legally justified in behaving in this way if they felt his well-being and that of his two-year-old son were immediately endangered by the economic and political system personified by Baroness Thatcher.
An hour and a half after being given permission to return a majority verdict, they were still no closer to a consensus.
The judge then hauled them into court and asked if there were any reasonable prospect that 10 of them might ever agree. "No, your honour," the jury forewoman replied emphatically, if apologetically. The group, smiling with relief at being relieved of this torturous decision, was dismissed.
The outcome - or rather the lack of it - means Mr Kelleher, a father who was partly motivated by his desire to protect his two-year-old son from the ills of global capitalism, will now stand trial again on January 22. Asked by the judge for any comments, Mr Kelleher added: "I just want this cleared up as soon as possible. I would just like to draw a line under this proceeding so that I can move on one way or another." "I appreciate that," the judge replied.
In his closing speech on Monday, Mr Kelleher had implored the jury to acquit him, saying "you will have martyrs' crowns placed upon your heads and your names written in the history books as the people who took back power from the establishment".