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A young person from Australia has faced legal proceedings after allegedly defacing a sizable blue sculpture of a mythical creature by applying googly eyes to it.

Amelia Vanderhorst, aged 19, appeared via phone at Mount Gambier Magistrates Court in South Australia on that day, facing with a single charge of damaging property.

Officials commented at the moment of the recent event, the local council said that CCTV footage captured a person placing 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 unwell, according to news outlets, with the judge advising her to find a lawyer before her upcoming hearing in December.

The following day the alleged incident, the local mayor stated that repairs to the popular public artwork would be expensive as the adhesive eyes were impossible to be detached without harming the sculpture.

“This wilful damage to a cherished community art is unacceptable and disrespectful,” Mayor Lynette Martin said in mid-September. “It is not harmless fun, it is costly - it is also frustrating to those members of our society who have welcomed the Blue Blob.”

She said the council would pursue the “significant” repair costs from those responsible for the damage.

When the artwork was initially suggested, it received mixed reactions from the local community due to its cost and design.

Priced at A$136,000 ($89,000; £68,000), the sculpture depicts a legendary giant animal, with the sculpture’s designers influenced by an prehistoric anteater-like marsupial discovered in local caves that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.