Workers remove 60ft ‘HELCH’ graffiti that ‘upset’ The Queen at ‘cost of £10k to taxpayer’

THE ‘HELCH’ graffiti that sent the Queen into a right royal rage after it appeared on a bridge near Windsor Castle is being removed.

Workers in hi-vis were seen using high powered hoses and cherry pickers to scrub the nonsensical scribbling from Her Majesty’s sight – at a cost of around £10,000.

Taxpayers have been forced to fork out after Banksy wannabe Michael Purdy vandalised the viaduct earlier this week.

Publicly funded Network Rail, which is responsible for managing the viaduct, told The Sun Online: “The graffiti which has appeared on the railway bridge in Windsor is to be removed as soon as possible.

“The decision to remove graffiti is made on a case-by-case basis with the size and scale of the graffiti in Windsor a contributing factor.

“It is dangerous to go near running railway lines and we urge people not to put their life at risk to vandalise bridges and viaducts.”
Purdy a 27-year-old drug convict who still lives with his mum was unmasked as viaduct vandal on Wednesday.

He has reportedly vandalised many other sites in and around London – including bridges on the M4, M1 and M25.

He was last year given a two-year jail sentence suspended for drugs offences and still lives with his mum and dad in Hayes, Middlesex, Mail Online reports.

His pals claim he is behind the tag, which first started cropping up in Harrow, North West London, in September 2018.

It also replaced the much-loved “Give Peas A Chance” mural over the M25 in Buckinghamshire – with the tag now reading: “Give HELCH a break”.

Most recently, he is understood to have legally scrawled graffiti on wooden boards put up ahead of the Notting Hill Carnival.

‘WANTS TO BE NEXT BANKSY’

One friend told the website: “Michael has been doing this since he was a kid, like 11 or 12 years old.

“He is part of a group of lads who go out and do it.

“He wants to be famous and seems to think he’s going to be the next Banksy.”

But his mum has insisted her son is not behind the famous graffiti work across the UK.

She said: “Years ago he might have done something like that when he was a teenager.

“But he is not HELCH as far as I am aware.

“I’ve seen that graffiti around. I don’t want him to be involved if he was.

“I’m his mother and I don’t know anything about it. I don’t like graffiti.

“But he says he’s not a graffiti artist and he has nothing to do with it.”

WINDSOR GRAFFITI

Purdy escaped jail at Cambridge Crown Court in June last year after he pleaded guilty to possession of over £1,000-worth of class A and class B drugs.

He smuggled vast quantities of ketamine, MDMA, cocaine and cannabis into the Secret Garden Party in Cambridge.

The Sun revealed how the Queen is said to be “extremely upset” after 10ft-by-60ft graffiti was painted overnight – ruining the view for visitors to Her Majesty’s favourite home.

The matter was first brought to her attention by guests who spotted it from Royal Windsor Way – a dual carriageway that brings them into the historic town.

QUEEN ‘EXTREMELY UPSET’

A royal source said: “The Queen was extremely upset to hear that this view of Windsor Castle has been turned into such an eyesore.

“Her aides have been asked to see what can be done to have this gratuitous vandalism cleaned up and the views across to Windsor Castle restored to their former beauty.”

The three-mile single track railway between Windsor and Slough opened in 1849 and the original wooden trestles were replaced by a 2,035-yard brick viaduct in 1865.

The line was used by Queen Victoria’s royal steam train and the famous playing fields of Eton College where Prince Harry and William went to school lay on the other side of it.

The viaduct takes the railway over the River Thames and is the world’s only wrought iron bridge still in regular use. It was designed by Isambard Brunel and is Grade 2 listed.

The viaduct has been the target of graffiti in the past but Network Rail, which is responsible for its upkeep, has said it will only remove it if it is obscene or offensive.

A spokesman said: “All graffiti removal comes at the taxpayers’ expense and we only remove it when it is deemed offensive or else the people who do it go back and just do it again.”