A district judge’s ode to Paddington Bear has propelled a humble criminal damage case in Reading magistrates’ court to international fame.

District Judge Sam Goozee was presiding over the case of two 22-year-old RAF engineers -  Daniel Heath and William Lawrence - who had, after a boozy day at the races in Newbury, Berks., ripped a statue (similar to the one pictured above) of the marmalade-munching ursid in half.

After the defendants admitted criminal damage at their first appearance on Tuesday, the judge briefly cast an eye towards a packed press bench and announced he would rise to consider his sentence.

Upon his return, the judge proceeded to read out an extraordinary homage to the fictional bear: a ‘beloved cultural icon’ who represents ‘kindness, tolerance and promotes integration and acceptance in our society’. The defendant’s actions, by contrast, were ‘the antithesis of everything Paddington stands for’, District Judge Goozee told the young men in the dock.

The judge’s words - circulated by the Judiciary press office - have since been published in every national title and travelled around the world, with coverage in the New York Times and the Washington Post. Nothing yet in Peruvian daily Diario Expreso however.

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