Student faces no action over rude Donald Trump protest

A polar bear and message saying "Climate change is real" mown into a lawn Image copyright Ollie Nancarrow
Image caption Ollie Nancarrow took about two hours to make the images

A student who mowed a rude message under the flight path of US President Donald Trump's plane will not face any action.

Ollie Nancarrow, 18, cut an image of a giant penis, as well a polar bear and a climate change message, on his family's land close to Stansted Airport, Essex.

President Trump arrived at the airport last week for a state visit to the UK.

Essex Police had said Mr Nancarrow may have breached public decency laws but he will now not face any action.

The A-level student said he was "relieved" he would not face prosecution.

"I can get where they [the police] are coming from but at the same time I do think it has all been blown a bit out of proportion," he said.

Image caption Ollie Nancarrow has mown a turtle over the giant penis after being told to remove it by police

Essex Police said it had given "words of advice" to Mr Nancarrow, of Hatfield Heath on the Essex-Hertfordshire border, and the matter was now resolved.

Mr Trump has previously accused climate change experts of having a "political agenda".

A human rights expert said the protest could have been defended under the right to free speech.

Dr Andrew Fagan, deputy director of the University of Essex's human rights centre, said while using the image of a penis could be seen as offensive in many cases, when it came to Mr Trump the issue as not so clear cut..

He said: "I imagine if it was a visit from the Pope there would be an outcry but with Trump he made the size of his penis a political issue when he talked about it in the Republican primary.

"I don't know if Ollie was thinking about that when he made his protest.

"I can't think of a time when this sort of image was used in political discourse but I think it is part of this post-Trump world we now live in."

Image copyright EPA
Image caption President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump arrived in Air Force One on Monday