LONDON (AP) — A person from Australia has been charged with “malicious mischief” for allegedly smashing a glass case holding the Stone of Future, an historical image of Scottish nationhood.
Arnaud Harixcalde Logan, 35, appeared at Perth Sheriff Court docket on Monday to face the cost, which is analogous to vandalism.
Logan, whose deal with was given as Sydney, wasn’t requested to enter a plea and was ordered detained till a listening to subsequent week.
Police stated that they have been known as to a “disturbance” at Perth Museum in central Scotland on Saturday, after studies of a kilt-wearing man making an attempt to smash the case containing the royal rock.
The 335-pound (150-kilogram) sandstone block is often known as the Stone of Scone (Skoon) — and was used within the crowning ceremonies of medieval Scottish monarchs at Scone Abbey, close to Perth. It was stolen by England’s King Edward I within the thirteenth century and brought to Westminster Abbey in London, the place it was put in beneath the seat of the coronation chair.
It has been utilized in coronations on the abbey ever since — first of English after which of British monarchs The English and Scottish crowns have been united beneath one monarch within the seventeenth century.
The stone’s presence in London lengthy irked Scottish nationalists. In 1950, it was stolen from Westminster Abbey by 4 Glasgow college college students, however was returned in time for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953.
It was given again to Scotland in 1996, 700 years after its seizure, and displayed in Edinburgh Fortress, with the understanding that it could return to England to be used in future coronations. Sensitivities across the stone meant that it needed to be moved to London in secrecy and amid tight safety for the coronation of King Charles III in 2023.
Final 12 months it was placed on show on the newly renovated Perth Museum the place, in response to the constructing’s web site, there are “a range of 24/7 security measures in place at the Museum to protect this precious object.”
Tradition Perth and Kinross, which oversees the museum, stated the stone wasn’t broken within the incident.