Tourist accused of Stone of Destiny attack has left country, court hears

An Australian tourist accused of smashing the Stone of Destiny exhibit with a hammer has fled the country, a court has heard.

Arnaud Hercules Harixcalde Logan was due to appear at Perth Sheriff Court on Thursday to face a charge of maliciously damaging the historic artefact’s casing.

Logan, 35, from Sydney, had previously been freed on bail by Sheriff Charles Lugton on condition that he hand his passport in to the police.

He was also ordered to sign on regularly with the police, but the court was told that Logan had disappeared without contacting the police or handing in his passport.

The court was told that Logan was no longer believed to be in the United Kingdom.

The Crown asked for a warrant to be issued for Logan’s arrest, but that was refused by Sheriff Alison McKay because of an administrative bungle by police officers.

It is alleged that Logan entered the Perth Museum and used a hammer to smash the glass outer case surrounding The Stone of Destiny on Saturday, July 12 last year.

Logan initially appeared in court wearing part of the traditional Jacobite costume he was sporting when arrested and was remanded in custody.

When he made a second appearance from custody a week later, Logan continued to represent himself and was granted bail with the special conditions attached.

The incident led to an evacuation of part of the Perth Museum, and access to the Stone of Destiny area was prohibited for several months while repairs were completed.

It was confirmed that the Stone had not sustained any damage during the incident.

Logan, whose address was given as student accommodation in Edinburgh, is alleged to have maliciously smashed the glass case housing the Stone of Destiny at Perth Museum.

Fiscal depute Laurelle Johnston told the court: “The information I have is that he is not in this country and hasn’t signed on at a police station as per the bail conditions.

“His passport has not been surrendered to the sheriff clerk’s office. The information I have been passed is that the officer attended the property where he used to reside.

“It is a student flat, and there is a concierge at the door, who advised that he no longer resides there and now lives abroad. The indictment was served on the concierge.”

Sheriff McKay said the “execution of service” was “not complete or accurate”, and she could not issue a warrant for Logan if he was not aware he was meant to be in court.

“It’s not good enough,” she said. “When dealing with any criminal business, it is not good enough just to scribble on the forms and hope for the best.

“You can feed back to the officer that the whole point of having three lines at the top of the form and three lines at the bottom is to enable them to write all the information on those three lines.

“Writing ‘I served it to a staff member, the concierge’ in a separate email is not what it needs to be. It astonishes me that we have police officers serving indictments like this.

“I am not granting a warrant in those terms. It might be worth feeding back to the police that it is just completely unacceptable.

“All it needs is for the paperwork to be filled in properly. I don’t know what the Crown propose to do with any warrant that’s granted, but I need to have a paper trail that properly explains why a warrant has been granted.”

The case was continued.