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Pair sentenced for smearing jam on Victoria statue

Spindrift Hannah Taylor and Sarah Martin leaving an earlier court hearing. Taylor has close-cropped dark hair and has several piercings in her ears and nose. Martin his long, wavy fair hair and his wearing a black jacket over white topSpindrift
Hannah Taylor and Sarah Martin had been found guilty to a charge of malicious mischief

Two food poverty protesters have been given non-custodial sentences for smearing jam and porridge over a bust of Queen Victoria.

Sarah Martin, 31, and Hannah Taylor, 24, carried out what they described as a demonstration against rising food insecurity at Glasgow's Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in March.

The pair, activists for campaign group This is Rigged, also spray-painted an offensive word on the plinth of the statue.

Martin and Taylor were found guilty to a charge of malicious mischief following a trial at Glasgow Sheriff Court last month.

Sheriff Simone Sweeney ordered Taylor, of the city's Drygate, to carry out 80 hours of unpaid work at a sentencing hearing.

Martin, of Shawlands, was told to pay £300 compensation to the art gallery.

In a video of the protest played to the trial, Martin is heard to say: "We refuse to be dragged back to the Victorian era."

This is Rigged A This is Rigged image of the Queen Victoria bust after it had been smeared with red jam and porridgeThis is Rigged
The protest group, This is Rigged, shared a video of the bust being smeared

She told the court: "I was forced into taking action and I took no reckless or thoughtless action - I sought to express my rights to protest."

The charity Glasgow Life, which runs the art gallery museum, had to pay about £600 to repair the statue and its plinth which have been fixtures at the museum for more than 30 years.