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A young person from Australia has appeared in court after reportedly vandalizing a sizable art piece of a legendary being by affixing plastic eyes to it.

Amelia Vanderhorst, 19 years old, appeared via phone at the local court in South Australia on that day, facing with a single charge of property damage.

Officials commented at the time of the recent event, the local council said that CCTV footage captured a person putting artificial eyes on the sculpture, which residents have dubbed the “Cast in Blue”.

The accused did not enter a plea and told the court she was ill, as reported by news outlets, with the judge advising her to secure a lawyer before her upcoming hearing in December.

The following day the alleged incident, the local mayor stated that repairs to the much-loved community sculpture would be costly as the adhesive eyes could not be removed without harming the sculpture.

“This intentional vandalism to a valued public artwork is inappropriate and disrespectful,” Mayor Lynette Martin said in mid-September. “It is not innocent amusement, it is costly - it is also disappointing to those people of our society who have embraced the Blue Blob.”

The mayor said the council would pursue the “substantial” restoration expenses from those responsible for the damage.

At the time the artwork was first proposed, it received varied responses from the area residents due to its cost and design.

Costing 136,000 Australian dollars (eighty-nine thousand US dollars; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the artwork depicts a mythical megafauna, with the sculpture’s designers inspired by an prehistoric anteater-like marsupial found in nearby caverns that was “massive, lumbering and fascinating”.