One of the men who defaced a popular George Michael mural in Sydney’s inner west has been charged and issued a court attendance, the ABC confirmed on Sunday.
The 23-year-old man will face Downing Centre Local Court on December 17 for painting over Scott Marsh’s mural honouring the late singer and gay icon.
Onlookers filmed the man as he was vandalising the artwork, and he can be heard calling the mural ‘sacrilegious’ and insisting that he was ‘defending his religion’.
Scott Marsh’s famous ‘St George’ Michael mural was destroyed by vandals on Friday night
The man in the video was taken away and charged, and will appear in court on December 17
In a strange turn of events, more video obtained by the group DIY Rainbow reveals that the man mistook the painting for a picture of Jesus.
Dressed in an all-white tracksuit, the man first uses black paint and a roller to obscure the image, and then throws buckets of paint at the wall.
‘I’ve done nothing wrong, I’ve done nothing wrong,’ the man repeats in the video, before police remove him from the scene.
‘I’m defending my religion – that’s exactly what I’m doing,’ he can be heard saying, as he is filmed by at least three people.
The man holding the camera reassured distressed onlookers that he’s called the Newtown police, who showed up a short time later and lead the man away.
Members of the Christian Lives Matter (left) tried to whitewash the ‘St George’ mural a few days before a 23-year-old vandal (right) used black paint to deface the work on Saturday night
The charge comes just days after another man defaced the same mural with a small can of spray paint that damaged but did not obscure the whole image.
Because that man was wearing an Azztek Stone work shirt during the act of vandalism, his company has fired him and offeredf to pay to restore the mural to its original condition.
Members of Christian Lives Matter also started to whitewash the ‘St George’ mural on Friday night at about 8pm. before police intervened.
Locals have rallied together to turn the mural’s site into a message of love and acceptance, chalking ‘No to hatred’ and ‘Love conquers all’ over the black paint.
A group of Newtown residents have set up camp around the corner from the mural to prevent any further attempts at vandalism. Many have called the work an ‘important symbol’ for the gay community.
Locals have come out in force to chalk messages of love over the vandal’s black spray painting
‘This is a very tolerant community and a very inclusive community,’ said local Terry Maher, who lives around the corner from the iconic work of art.
‘It’s a very divisive act but we’re not going to put up with it. We’re going to stay strong and we’re going to make it better and we’re going to make it something about love rather than something about hate.’
Sydney street artist Scott Marsh, who painted the mural after the singer’s death on Christmas Day last year, revealed that he already has plans for a new mural that will be protected by a graffiti-proof coating.
The original mural by Scott Marsh featured Tony Abbott ‘marrying’ disgraced the Cardinal Pell
‘The Happy Ending’ on the wall of Botany View Hotel was ruined on Wednesday and Thursday
The vandal destroyed the mural just days after a group of ‘threatening religious dudes’ who spent Wednesday night painting over a provocative mural in support of marriage equality in Newtown.
The same artist painted the mural ‘The Happy Ending’ on the wall of the Botany View Hotel in Newtown in celebration of same sex marriage. The mural took two days and was finished on Wednesday afternoon.
But while people were inside the venue celebrating the victory of the ‘Yes’ vote in favour of same-sex marriage on Thursday night, a group of men went outside and painted over it.
‘They have threatened staff and patrons, these staunch religious eshays are here to cover up a ‘hateful’ painting while spreading hate and fear in the process.
Try and get that logic,’ wrote Bryan Butterfield, who filmed the incident.
During a filmed confrontation with local resident, the men aggressively defend their ‘right’ to ruin Marsh’s work.
‘Why are you painting over it?’ the woman asks, to which the man answers, ‘Because it’s offensive to the general public. It’s pornography mate.’
The woman asks off camera, ‘You know that it’s in Newtown, right?’ to which one of the man replies: ‘Ah yeah, OK, it’s still part of Australia….The vote was for gay marriage, not for this painting.’
A ‘religious dude’ took a long-handed roller and buckets of black paint to destroy the mural
Three men ruined Scott Marsh’s mural in Newtown, branding it ‘offensive’ and ‘pornography’
She asks the men why they need to come all the way to Newtown to see the mural if it is offensive to their yes.
‘Do you live across the road?’ a woman asks one of the men, who is wearing a large blue and white striped shirt and reflective sneakers.
‘It’s Australia, I’m free to do what I want and if I do want to come here, I don’t want to see this,’ the man replies.
‘So don’t look at it!’ the woman suggests. Hotel patrons and locals flocked to express their disappointment but did not attempt to stop the men.
Mr Marsh said that the response to the mural ‘has been 98 per cent positive’ and that the only negative responses had come from a few Christian groups.
A group of ‘threatening religious dudes’ painted over the popular mural on Thursday evening
Locals have high praise for the artwork and Mr Marsh, and subsequently slammed the men responsible for destroying it.
‘It goes against the spirit of Newtown which has a very vibrant, street art scene and it’s also against the hotel,’ local resident Nicholas McCallum told ABC.
He also said that the hotel was ‘more popular’ than it has ever been, and any calls to boycott the venue have had the opposite effect.
The painting prompted a brief social media backlash, where a man encouraged people to leave one-star reviews on the establishment’s Facebook page.
However, that plan backfired when ‘Yes’ supporters flocked to the page and left thousands of of five-star reviews that far outnumbered the negative ones
‘Fantastic mural! Love a business that has principles. Can’t wait to visit here again,’ Trevor McBride wrote.
The negative reviews from ‘No’ supporters are now outnumbered 4-to-1 by 5-star reviews
The mural was first defaced at about 6pm on Thursday night with a few buckets of white paint
The mural was first defaced less than 12 hours after the announcement, when someone threw a bucket of white paint over Cardinal Pell’s face while the marriage equality celebrations were in full swing inside.
But the artist Mr Marsh took it in his stride, sarcastically praising the vandal responsible.
‘They had a lot of paint and a good throwing arm, as the mural is pretty tall,’ Marsh told Broadsheet.
‘It’s a great collaboration with the church, who have really over over-emphasised George Pell’s excitement at the historic ‘Yes’ vote by plastering his face with white paint. Well done.’
‘Politics As Usual’ was painted on the corner of corner of Wellington St and Regent St in April
Sydney Street artist Scott Marsh works on the mural of New South Wales premier Mike Baird
Following the first incident of vandalism, Mr Marsh told the Sydney Morning Herald that he planned to leave the defaced mural as it was.
‘I think it’s just a chapter in the life of the mural,’ he said. ‘When you’re making public art, the reaction is important, the reaction is needed.’
Mr Marsh is responsible for other iconic street art in the same area, including ‘Politics As Usual’, ‘Casino Mike’, and ‘Tony Loves Tony’ and ‘Kanye Loves Kanye.
There have already been calls for Mr March to paint new murals in the same iconic spots in Newtown and Chippendale.
Iconic Newtown artist Scott Marsh also painted ‘Tony Loves Tony’ with the hashtag #VoteYes
Mr Marsh first painted Tony Abbott in September, after he urged all Australians to ‘Vote No’
Scott Marsh painted this image of rapper Kanye West kissing another Kanye West in March