Jail for Green Party politician in statue attack

A Green Party politician who hurled fake blood over Queen Victoria Memorial in a protest over the royals’ support for hunting has been jailed for 18 months. Christopher Bennett, 33, along with Riley Ings, 27, Louis McKechnie, 23, Claire Smith, 26 and Rachel Steele, 48, defaced the white marble statue outside Buckingham Palace. They threw red liquid over the memorial and let off flares on 26 August 2021, Southwark Crown Court heard. The protestors were seen with signs that read…