Alleged Cenotaph Vandal Arrested by London Police

The Metropolitan Police have arrested a woman for allegedly trying to set fire to the flags on the Cenotaph war memorial.

The woman was questioned by the police on suspicion of criminal damage to the Cenotaph during a Black Lives Matter protest on June 7th, after an incident in which an individual was seen attempting to set fire to the flags hanging from the Cenotaph.

The 20-year-old woman was released on bail and will appear before the court late next month, according to The Telegraph.

The Cenotaph, meaning “empty tomb”, was constructed to memorialise “The Glorious Dead” following the First World War, and is the site of many ceremonies honouring fallen British and Commonwealth servicemen from all conflicts and of all ethnic backgrounds.

#APPEAL | Can you help us identify the people in these images?

Cmdr Bas Javid said: "A small minority attended with the sole purpose of attacking police officers, or violently confronting other protesters. This is clearly unacceptable."https://t.co/fuIInj8wWL

— Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) June 18, 2020

The Met also released images of 35 suspects from the BLM protests — that saw violent clashes with police in the British capital between June 3rd and June 13th — calling on the public to help identify tthem.

“As you would expect, we are running a large investigation to identify those who committed serious offences across all the demonstrations over the last month,” Met Commander Bas Javid said.

“Across these protests, almost 230 arrests have been made to date, with 128 of these relating to the most recent protests on 13 June,” he added.

“We are now asking for the public’s help in identifying people, who we need to talk to about the violence seen at the protests. If you have any information, no matter how small, please get in touch,” Javid urged.

Images of another 13 suspects were released shortly afterwards.

Detectives investigating the violent clashes in London at recent demonstrations have released 13 more images of people they want to speak to. This includes people who we believe have engaged in racial abuse and serious violence – click the link to view https://t.co/vuFHQuGWbd

— Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) June 20, 2020

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Johnson said that his government is considering increasing the punishments for acts of vandalism against war memorials following the desecration of the Cenotaph.

“I can tell the House [of Commons] any incident of vandalism or attack on public property will be met with the full force of the law and perpetrators will be prosecuted,” Johnson told parliamentary colleagues.

“I can also confirm that we are looking at new ways in which we may legislate against vandalism of war memorials,” he added.

A proposed Desecration of War Memorials Bill is planned to come before the House of Commons on June 23rd, and already has the support of 125 MPs.

Follow Kurt on Twitter at @KurtZindulka