Juvenile arrested for defacing Camborne community 'hope' mural

A community mural that is meant to represent hope has been defaced. The mural in Camborne portrays the town's own rugby legends, the Matavesi brothers, who played locally and went on to play international rugby for Fiji.

The mural was created by spraypaint artist Cosmic who has illustrated Camborne's heritage and history with some his work throughout the town centre.

Yesterday (Thursday, January 16) the mural - which is meant to represent hope - was defaced by some idiot's own graffiti, which caused some upset in the town. Demelza Lean, who reported the incident to the police, told CornwallLive: "Recently Camborne town has been greeted with some amazing art work from the amazing spray paint artist who goes by the name of Cosmic.

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"He has illustrated our town' heritage using his imagination in transforming old electrical phone boxes into cartoon images using spray paints. However on Wednesday he created the ultimate masterpiece on the shutters of what was the old whirlwind sports.

"The illustration was of the famous Matavesi brothers of Camborne, who started their rugby journey as youths at Camborne RFC, from there they then went onto playing international rugby for Fiji.

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"The artist sprayed an illustration of the three boys in a scrum, wearing the classic 'cherry and whites' playing jersey. But this was more than just a spray-painting. It had a message for all of the youth in Camborne and that message was a personal one from Josh Matavesi himself stating, 'no matter how big your dreams are, or where you come from you can achieve anything'."

She added: "It was in hope that some of the unfortunate youth of today take this as a opportunity to achieve their goals no matter how big or small it's possible. That being said, in the early hours of the night someone who has been known for this around the Camborne area has decided to spray paint his name tag all over this artwork. It's been an upsetting and disgraceful thing to witness."

Police in Camborne have now confirmed that a youth has been arrested in the town in connection with the incident. In a post on Facebook, they said: "A juvenile male has been arrested in connection with numerous incidents of graffiti vandalism across the Camborne and Redruth area, including recent damage to a professional mural recently completed in Camborne town centre.

"We understand the impact this has on the community, and we're committed to addressing these concerns. The investigation is ongoing, and we will provide further updates as they become available."

If you have any information or have witnessed suspicious activity, please get in touch with us via 101 or report anonymously through Crimestoppers at 0800 555 111.

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