(ProsperNews.net) – A Black Lives Matter activist who helped topple a statue in the UK has pleaded guilty to fraud after donations she raised vanished. Xahra Saleem – also known as Yvonne Maina – entered a guilty plea at Bristol Crown Court in England, where BLM rioters tore down the statue of local businessman and politician Edward Colston in full view of the police. Saleem was charged when around $30,000 in donations went missing.
Avon and Somerset Police announced the charges against Saleem last November. She would face two fraud counts based on two online fundraising pages. The convicted fraudster initiated one of these fundraisers before the statue was vandalized and another to pay for legal fees afterward.
The second promised to provide funds to a local children’s charity, Changing Your Mindset, to subsidize a trip to Africa. The cash never arrived, however, and the charity contacted the police.
Following her guilty plea, the Judge told her she had dishonestly abused her position and kept the funds for herself. She will be sentenced next month.
The toppling of Edward Colston was a major scandal in the UK and led to a highly politicized criminal trial. Senior police officers openly supported the vandalism, but Conservative Home Secretary Priti Patel stepped in, and police eventually filed charges.
Despite no denial from the defendants, defense attorneys told the jury that they should stand “on the right side of history,” and a not-guilty verdict was returned.
The incident occurred in the summer of 2020 when Black Lives Matter rioters destroyed property in the US and around the world. They targeted Edward Colston because he was a prominent businessman during the time of the Atlantic slave trade. He was also a Member of the UK’s Parliament and founded several charities, schools, and hospitals in his home city of Bristol. Following his death, he was described as “the brightest Example of Christian Liberality.”
The rioters also defaced the central London statue of wartime leader Winston Churchill.
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