Man charged with David Oluwale replica plaque damage in Leeds

The original plaque was stolen after it was installed on Leeds Bridge

A man has been charged with destroying a replica plaque commemorating a British-Nigerian man who drowned after being chased by police.

Remembering David Oluwale, the tribute was a replacement on Leeds Bridge after the original plaque was stolen.

Police said Gregory Palmer, 60, was due at Leeds magistrates on Wednesday charged with criminal damage of the plaque on 7 July last year.

He has also been charged with racially aggravated criminal damage.

West Yorkshire Police said that charge against Mr Palmer, of St Peter's Court, Bramley, related to an incident at business premises in Wellington Street, Leeds, on 17 April, 2022.

Police said that a man who was arrested on 9 May in relation to the theft of the original plaque remained under investigation.

Who was David Oluwale?

Mr Oluwale's death led to the first prosecution of British police for involvement in the death of a black person

David Oluwale migrated from Nigeria in August 1949, hiding on a cargo ship destined for Hull.

He spent his final two years homeless in Leeds city centre, routinely mentally and physically abused by two police officers.

In the early hours of 18 April 1969, he was chased on to a bridge over the River Aire, and his body was found in the water two weeks later.

Two officers were later jailed for a series of assaults, but justice and civil rights campaigners said their trial presented a deliberately negative portrait of Mr Oluwale as a "social nuisance".