Bully 'will always be a target'

Feb 9 2006 By Jasbir Authi, Birmingham Mail

BULLRING bosses today revealed the damage to the bronze bull statue may not be as bad as first feared.

But the grim truth is now dawning on security chiefs that the lucky landmark will always be a target for vandals.

The statue at the entrance to the Bullring shopping centre was attacked for the second time in a year at the weekend.

A lone figure armed with an ice skate scrawled the word BIZ and other letters into the body of the bronze statue.

The vandal, wearing a hoodie top to cover his face, evaded the 24-hour protection shield thrown around the bull to strike in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Bullring management said the damage in the latest attack was mostly superficial but stopped short of revealing how much it would cost to repair.

Bullring general manager Tim Walley, said: "Fortunately the damage to the bull is minimal with only surface scratches. We will be able to repair it quickly with minimum disruption.

"We are naturally very disappointed that an iconic symbol of the city has been targeted with the graffiti.

"A safe and secure environment for shopping is our key task at Bullring and with a centre the size of 24 football pitches we invest heavily in a dedicated team and the best in security technology. Indeed we have been able to help the police by passing on footage of the incident happening."

Mr Walley added: "We will review the security of the bull with the police to see if we can make any further security measures to protect the statue, but unfortunately we fear that such an important symbol of the city will always be a target, in this day and age, by selfish individuals who want to upset the city."

Meanwhile West Midlands police were continuing to sift through CCTV footage in their search for the vandal.

Last June, a lone attacker gouged words into the bull but no-one was ever successfully prosecuted for the attack.

It took two weeks of painstaking work to repair the damage caused by the lout, at a cost of more than £11,600.

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