Burka sculpture attacked after Brexit vote

AN ELDERLY woman who yelled “We voted to take our country back” as she smashed a burka sculpture at the Royal College of Art has been spared jail.

Mikaela Haze, 70, shouted “Saudi Arabia go home” and ripped the veil from the £6,300 artwork before toppling it, six days after the European Union referendum result.

The sculpture, consisting of a burka over a metal frame, was created by Yasmeen Sabri, a masters student, to “promote tolerance and understanding”.

Haze, who claimed to have worked as a designer for The Beatles, entered the gallery in South Kensington clutching a bottle of cider, Westminster magistrates’ court heard.

Ms Sabri was working on her sculpture at the RCA on June 29 when Haze expressed interest in her work.

Denise Johnson, prosecuting, said: “This person then asked her to take a Muslim head veil from the piece and place it on her head to try it on.

“Once the veil was on her head, the woman became frantic, screaming out ‘Go back to Saudi Arabia’ and ‘This is my country’.”

As security staff began to escort Haze out, she “rushed back to the piece of artwork and pulled it away from the stand, causing it to fall”.

The court heard it took Ms Sabri six months to complete the sculpture.

Haze, of Bayswater, west London, admitted racially aggravated criminal damage, and was given a nine-week jail term, suspended for 12 months.

‘Once the veil was on her head, the woman became frantic, screaming out “Go back to Saudi Arabia”’