Cambridge students plead not gulity to Union vandalism

Two Cambridge students accused of vandalising the Union ahead of Dominique Strauss-kahn’s visit to Cambridge today pleaded not guilty to the charges.

by Helen Charman

This article is 14 years old

Monday March 19 2012, 8:59pm

Naiara Bazin and Theodore Slade, both students at the university today pleaded not guilty to covering the Union buildings with graffiti and signs ahead of the controversial visit by Dominique Strauss-Kahn that took place on Friday 9th March.

Bazin, a 21 year old student at King's College, and Slade, a 20 year old whose college has not been disclosed, are both facing charges of criminal damage.

The Union building was discovered in the early hours of the day of Strauss-Kahn's visit to be daubed with paint and chalk and strewn with signs calling for "DSK go away" and drawing attention to the rape accusations that caused so much controversy about the former head of the IMF's visit to the Union.

A trial date for Bazin and Slade has been set for 4th May this year. Neither CUSU nor the university have commented yet on the two students' plea.

Support Varsity

Varsity is the independent newspaper for the University of Cambridge, established in its current form in 1947. In order to maintain our editorial independence, our print newspaper and news website receives no funding from the University of Cambridge or its constituent Colleges.

We are therefore almost entirely reliant on advertising for funding and we expect to have a tough few months and years ahead.

In spite of this situation, we are going to look at inventive ways to look at serving our readership with digital content and of course in print too!

Therefore we are asking our readers, if they wish, to make a donation from as little as £1, to help with our running costs. Many thanks, we hope you can help!