Protester, 58, denies attacking Eric Gill statue with hammer and chisel outdoors BBC HQ inflicting £150k injury
A protester has pleaded not guilty to attacking a statue by Eric Gill outside the BBC headquarters – said to have caused more than £150,000 worth of damage.
David Chick, 58, of Bozeat, Northamptonshire, scaled the scaffolding outside the building in Portland Place in central London and began attacking the statue, the court heard.
He allegedly used a hammer and chisel to cause damage to the statue of Prospero and Ariel from William Shakespeare’s play The Tempest on May 20, 2023.
The area around the statue was cordoned off while Chick remained there for around eight hours until specialist officers arrived to arrest him.
He was found in possession of a rucksack, a chisel, a hammer and three boxes of fireworks.
According to court documents, the statue suffered £153,014.18 of damage from the incident.
The monument was created by controversial sculptor Eric Gill, who is said to have sexually abused two of his daughters.
Gill was one of the most prominent sculptors of the 20th century until his death in 1940, but his diaries, published much later, detailed the sexual abuse of his daughters.
A man wearing a Spiderman mask uses a hammer and chisel to damage the Prospero and Ariel statue by Eric Gill
David Chick, 58, arrived at Southwark Crown Court charged with causing £150,000 of damage
Chick was already facing trial for criminal damage to the same statue in a previous incident on January 12, 2022.
Judge David Tomlinson granted an application by prosecutor Nathan Palmer to join the two matters together during a plea hearing at Southwark Crown Court on Monday.
‘They are two offences of not just the same or very similar nature but, in effect, identical offences,’ the judge said.
The defendant, wearing a black jumper with a red Spiderman logo in the dock, spoke only to confirm his name and deny criminal damage to property over £5,000.
Protestors have been calling for the statue of Ariel and Prospero to be taken down after it was revealed Eric Gill, who passed away in 1940, was sexually abusive towards two of his daughters.
The judge released Chick on conditional bail, ordering the defendant not to go within 100 metres of the statue.
A trial date was set at the same court for May 6 next year.
A police officer watches as a man wearing a Spiderman mask uses a hammer and chisel to damage the Prospero and Ariel statue
David Chick was previously charged with damaging the same statue by Eric Gill (pictured in 2022)
Eric Gill: The dark side of a famous sculptor
Pictured: English sculptor Eric Gill
- In 1907, Eric Gill moved with his wife Ethel Hester Moore to Ditchling in Sussex, where he established a bohemian artists’ community
- In Sussex and at his later home in a ruined Benedictine monastery in Wales he produced life drawings of his daughters as they grew up
- He drew his daughter Petra, who he admitted having sex with, as a nude teenager in work Girl In Bath
- In his diary, published after his death, he described his penchant for bestiality and incest – with his sister and with his daughters
- He had a string of affairs with models for his work
The Gill sculpture, depicting Prospero and Ariel from Shakespeare’s play The Tempest, was said to have been installed in 1933.
‘Prospero, Ariel’s master, stands 10ft tall and is depicted sending Ariel out into the world. Ariel, as the spirit of the air, was felt to be an appropriate symbol for the new mystery of broadcasting,’ the BBC says on its website.
It adds: ‘After Broadcasting House was opened and the statues were installed, concern was voiced about the size of the sprite’s genitalia.
‘A question was tabled in the House of Commons, but the popular story, that Gill was ordered to modify the statue, is not substantiated.’
It is one of a number of Gill sculptures at the BBC’s headquarters – the Sower can be found in the reception area, while he also contributed to Bas Reliefs of Ariel in the building as well.
The BBC describes the Sower as: ‘The statue, made of English marble (Hopton Wood Stone) stands more than 2.6 metres tall in a niche by the doors leading to the artists’ lobby and studios.
‘A pedestal supports the statue, and bears the inscription ‘Deus Incrementu Dat’ (‘God giveth the increase’, Corinthians, chapter 3, verse 7).’
In 1990, the BBC adopted his typeface Gill Sans which he created in 1927. The corporation used the font for its wordmark and many of its onscreen television graphics.
The logo became one of the longest standing logos in the world and was only recently changed.
A biography on the Tate museum website said: ‘Gill’s religious views and subject matter contrast with his sexual behaviour, including his erotic art, and (as mentioned in his own diaries) his extramarital affairs and sexual abuse of his daughters, sisters and dog.’
Nearly 2,500 people have previously signed a petition demanding the removal of the sculpture on the website of political activist group 38 Degrees.
