A defence to criminal damage?

Appeal judges will be asked whether protesters’ human rights justify acquittals

The Court of Appeal is to consider whether protesters charged with causing criminal damage have a defence under the Human Rights Act.

In January, Milo Ponsford, 26, Rhian Graham, 30, Jake Skuse, 33, and Sage Willoughby, 22, were acquitted by a jury of damaging a monument to the 17th-century slave trader Edward Colston, which had been pulled down last su…