Four activists have denied causing criminal damage after allegedly throwing custard and apple crumble at a display case containing the Crown Jewels in the Tower of London. The four appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Monday, where they each pleaded not guilty to the charge.
Fatima Ali, 19, of Rhodeswell Road, Tower Hamlets; Marian Cranch, 22, of Trelawn Avenue, Leeds; Mack Preston, 22, of Westferry Circus, Tower Hamlets; and Matthew Cooper, 60, of Oriel Gardens, Bath, all entered not guilty pleas to a single count of criminal damage. In a separate charge, Ali and Cranch also denied causing criminal damage to the uniform of a female guard at the tower – specifically a cape and shoes – valued at £30.
District Judge Daniel Sternberg released all four defendants on unconditional bail. Their trial is set to begin on 30 November at the City of London Magistrates’ Court.
The Alleged Damage
Prosecutor Tom Heslop told the court that the four are accused of damaging a glass display case, a brass handrail and a stone plinth during the protest on 6 December. The total value of those items, the court heard, is approximately £600. Together with the alleged damage to the guard’s uniform – put at £30 – the total claimed loss stands at £630.
The incident took place shortly before 10am at the Jewel House, where the Imperial State Crown is kept. Footage released by the group Take Back Power shows one demonstrator slamming a foil tray of crumble against the glass of the display case before another pours custard onto it. The activists were reportedly wearing T-shirts bearing the group’s “Take Back Power” slogan and were heard shouting phrases including “Democracy has crumbled” and “Britain is broken. We’ve come here to the jewels of the nation to take back power.”
Tourists present in the Jewel House reacted with shock. A Tower of London worker approached the protesters and radioed for assistance. The building was temporarily closed to the public while police investigated, but Historic Royal Palaces has since confirmed that the Crown Jewels themselves were not damaged. The Imperial State Crown – worn by King Charles III at his coronation and at the State Opening of Parliament – contains 2,868 diamonds, 17 sapphires, 11 emeralds, four rubies and 269 pearls, and weighs more than a kilogram.
The Group: Take Back Power
Take Back Power describes itself as a non-violent civil-resistance group. It has no single leader and is funded primarily through small individual donations. The group says its members are ordinary people from all walks of life, many of them seasoned activists who have previously taken part in protests by Extinction Rebellion or Just Stop Oil.
The group’s core demand is the establishment of a permanent citizens’ assembly – what it calls a “House of the People” – with the power to “tax extreme wealth and fix Britain”. It argues that ordinary people should decide how to tax the rich and that, since 2011, the poorest 10 per cent of households have paid a higher combined tax rate than the wealthiest. The Crown Jewels protest was intended to highlight what the group calls “spiralling wealth inequality” and the “plight of working people”.
The demonstration at the Tower of London was not Take Back Power’s only recent action. Three days earlier, on 3 December, members emptied bags of manure next to the Christmas tree at the Ritz Hotel in London. In March this year, the group conducted what it calls a “mass shoplifting campaign” across several UK cities – including London, Manchester, Exeter and Truro – where activists “liberated” food and other necessities from supermarkets to supply food banks. Police were involved and arrests were made on suspicion of conspiracy to commit theft. Take Back Power claims those actions were non-violent and that in some cases no crime was committed because the goods did not leave the premises.
The group has also projected messages onto the Houses of Parliament, including the slogans “Inequality is growing”, “The rich are killing us” and “Democracy is captured”.
In April this year, seven members of the group were arrested in Salford on suspicion of conspiracy to steal during what Take Back Power described as a “nonviolence training session”. Police said they were taking “robust action to disrupt this type of organised criminality”. The group claimed the arrests were part of an “escalating repression” of non-violent campaigns.
