A court in Sweden has sentenced a man to six months in prison for burning a giant straw sculpture – the Christmas Goat, Swedish news portal TheLocal.se reports.
Straw sculpture, which was the 13 metres high giant was the signature Christmas decoration of the Swedish east-coast town of Gävle. It is also famous for arson attacks against it. Since 1966, the sculpture has been burned down on 30 occasions.
The latest act of vandalism took place just a week before Christmas. Police was quick to arrested a man, who had soot on his hands and was also recorded on CCTV as he was crawling up to the goat and setting it alight.
On Thursday, January 20, the Gävle District Court found the man guilty of «inflicting gross damage» and ordered him to pay 109,082 Swedish kronor (10,547.79 euros) in compensation to the Gävle municipality, The Local reports citing court documents.
Man in Sweden jailed for burning Christmas Goat
