A protester has admitted maliciously damaging a display case containing the Stone of Destiny at Edinburgh Castle last year. Joe Madden, 22, pled guilty to damaging the display cabinet in the crown jewels room by hitting it with a rock, hammer, chisel and similar implements.
The protest group This is Rigged claimed responsibility for the incident, which involved three activists and took place on November 15, 2023, demanding supermarkets reduce the price of baby products and for the Scottish Government to fund food hubs. Madden appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Christmas Eve, where he admitted a charge of causing damage to the cabinet while acting together with two others.
He entered a plea of not guilty to a further charge of breaching the peace, which was accepted by the Crown. Fiscal depute Nadia Stewart told the court on the day of the incident a tour guide had been taking a group of eight or ten people through the crown jewels room.
The tour guide heard someone say “this is a peaceful protest”, the fiscal depute said. Ms Stewart told the court the tour guide “turned around and saw the accused standing in front of the cabinet which contains the crown and stone of destiny”.
The guide noticed the accused was in possession of “various items” and pressed her panic button, which prevented further tour groups from coming into the room. Ms Stewart continued: “She then saw what appeared to be spray paint being sprayed on to the cabinet.”
The tour guide saw the accused holding a “brick or stone which he attempted to smash the cabinet with”, the court was told. Police later attended the castle in relation to the incident, the fiscal depute said.
Adjourning the case to January 23, Sheriff Kenneth Campbell said: “I will require a background report before passing sentence.”
The other activists involved in the protest were recently sentenced to unpaid work during a separate hearing at the same court earlier this month. Jamie Priest, 26, and Catriona Roberts, 22, both students, also admitted maliciously causing damage.
Priest was given 120 hours and Roberts 180 hours of unpaid work. During that hearing, the court was told the cost of the damage was £2,798.
The Stone of Destiny has been associated with the Scottish and UK monarchies for centuries. It was long used in the inauguration of Scottish monarchs.
However, in 1296 it was seized by King Edward I of England as war loot and taken to London. It was built into a coronation chair at Westminster Abbey and was used in the coronation ceremonies of kings and queens of England and, later, Great Britain after the Scottish and English crowns were united in the early 17th century.
In 1950, a group of students carried out an audacious raid to steal the stone from Westminster Abbey and return it to Scotland to try and advance the cause of independence. The raid led to the sandstone block splitting in two but it was later recovered.
The Stone of Destiny was used in Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation in 1953 and was also used in the coronation of the King last year. It was formally returned to Scotland in 1996 to go on display at Edinburgh Castle, but in March this year it left the capital for Perth Museum as the centrepiece of a £27 million redevelopment.
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