Vandals Deface Statue of Queen Victoria in Leeds Park

'Slave owner'??? Slavery was abolished throughout the Empire FOUR YEARS before Victoria ascended the throne!

From LeedsLive

The words “slag” and “slave owner” have been spray-painted onto the statue

Vandals have defaced the Queen Victoria statue in Leeds with graffiti.

All four sides of the statue in Woodhouse Moor, Hyde Park, have spray-painted and the front is emblazoned with the words “slag” and “slave owner”, while the words “BLM” and “educate” have been spray-painted along the bottom.

Some people in the park have been posing with pictures of the defaced monument which also has words such as “murderer”, “justice” and “racist”.

Queen Victoria became monarch in 1837 - four years after the abolition of slavery. But the British Empire did expand during her 63-year reign, colonising a quarter of the world's land including countries such as India, Zimbabwe and Australia.

Queen Victoria’s statue is one of the monuments targeted after the removal of Edward Colston, a slave owner from Bristol.

A petition signed by almost 400 people has also been launched to remove the statue of Robert Peel, in Leeds.

It states: “Monuments and statues are celebrations of history. We should not celebrate colonisers.”