A climate protester has been spared jailed after pouring human faeces over a Captain Tom Moore memorial statue.
Madeleine Budd, 21, sparked outrage last month when she was filmed tipping a container of urine and faeces over the statue in Hatton, Derbyshire.
She pleaded guilty to causing criminal damage after the stunt that was carried out for the pressure group End UK Private Jets.
Police launched an investigation after the campaign group featured the video on its social media pages that showed the monument to the 100-year-old World War Two veteran being defaced.
Instead of being jailed, District Judge Briony Clarke sentenced Budd to 21 weeks imprisonment suspended for 18 months. She was also ordered to pay £200 compensation.
Prosecutor Jordan Pratt earlier told the court: "She [Budd] approached the statue and poured a bucket of human faeces all over this statue.
"This act was filmed. It has already been seen by a number of people. This is an abhorrent act. I need not remind the court of the impact that Tom Moore had.
"He was a figurehead who people rallied round to raise tens of millions of pounds walking round his garden at the height of the pandemic."
This wasn't the first time Budd had been involved in drastic climate protests. She had previously tried to run onto the pitch at the Emirates Stadium, during an Arsenal game, to superglue herself to the goal but was stopped.
Her father, Jim Budd, said his daughter had "gone rogue", after giving up her career in medicine to pursue environmental campaigning full-time.
Mr Budd, an award-winning glazier, said he and his charity worker wife Harriet, 63, have messaged Maddie, but had no reply, saying: "The shock of this is hurting people and upsetting them", report Coventry Live.
He added: "I’m ashamed of her [...] There has been a big public reaction for obvious reasons. I don’t think she understands what the hell she was unleashing.
"I felt sick with shock when I saw it - I have sent her a text message but she has not replied."
The glazier said it was completely "understandable" police were investigating "an act of desecration", adding: "I can’t really apologise on her behalf.
"Sir Tom was clearly a national hero and the country resonated with his fantastic and amazing actions. We are trying to sort it out but if the police get involved then so be it.
"When people are young and vulnerable they can go down roads they would not do later in life."
Katie McFadden, defending, had argued Budd should be freed as she had already served the equivalent of six weeks in custody. She said: "Ms Budd has made it clear that she is happy to comply with court orders and directions."
They had applied for bail yesterday saying Budd's mother was happy for her to stay at the family address ahead of sentence.
But the prosecutor objected to her getting bail and said: "There has been widespread outcry by members of the public and by veterans as well."
Explaining the protest, former medical student Budd said: "People are going to say that he's a hero, people are going to say that this is profoundly, obscenely disrespectful to his life, and to the NHS he stood up for and I agree.
"I was studying to become a doctor because I believe in taking care of people.
"If we believe that the NHS is important, if we believe in taking care of each other, if we believe that NHS workers are doing essential work, why are forcing our healthcare system into collapse, why are we forcing our civilisation into collapse, why is basically no-one taking this genocide of all humanity seriously?
"All of this is true and the Government won't even End UK Private Jets. Every time one takes off, it pours a bucket of sh*t and blood onto everything that Captain Tom stood for."
End UK Private Jets is a group protesting against luxurious and unnecessary carbon emissions, focusing on the use of private jets in the UK.
Sir Tom, who was a Second World War veteran, raised £33million for the NHS during the pandemic - aged 100.
On April 6, 2020, at the age of 99, he started a fundraising mission to raise £1,000 for the health service. His aim was to walk a hundred lengths of his garden by his birthday on April 30 and was celebrated as a national hero.
After being knighted by the Queen for his charitable efforts, he tragically died in February last year after testing positive for Covid-19.
