Climate activists have spray-painted the Ibiza mansion of Argentina football star Lionel Messi to highlight the “responsibility of the rich for the climate crisis”.

Activists from the Futuro Vegetal group released a video showing two of its members standing in front of the house holding a banner that read: “Help the Planet – Eat the Rich – Abolish the Police.”

The activists then sprayed the white facade of the building with red and black paint.

In a statement, the group said it wanted to show “the responsibility of the rich for the climate crisis” by targeting the mansion.

The group cited a 2023 Oxfam report that found that the richest one per cent of the world’s population generated the same amount of carbon emissions in 2019 as the poorest two-thirds.

Futuro Vegetal also criticised Spain’s environmental police, which it said “aggravate the climate crisis, as well as the unequal responsibility for it.”

Messi, who currently plays for Inter Miami in the United States, reportedly bought the property on the Mediterranean island – which includes a spa with a sauna and a cinema room – in 2022, from a Swiss businessman for around 11 million euros (£9.4m).

A lawyer for Messi signed the paperwork for the property in 2022, acting as the legal representation of the company Edificio Rostower. The parent company is Limecu, the director of which is the footballer’s brother, Rodrigo Messi.

However, according to Futuro Vegetal the mansion is an “illegal” construction. Spanish media reports say the property lacks a certificate of occupancy, a document issued by a local government agency certifying it is in a liveable condition, due the construction of several rooms in the property without a licence.

Bilbo Bassaterra, the group’s spokesman, claimed that “the law does not work the same for everyone”, while adding that this week almost 200 workers have been evicted in Ibiza.

The Inter Miami star also owns a 52-room hotel, called Hotel Es Vivé, on the island.

Futuro Vegetal, which is linked to other climate action groups internationally, has staged dozens of similar protests, including one in 2022 where members glued their hands to frames of paintings by Spanish master Francisco de Goya at Madrid’s Prado museum.

Last year, activists from the group spray-painted a superyacht moored in Ibiza with red and black paint that reportedly belonged to Nancy Walton Laurie, the billionaire heiress of US retail giant Walmart.

Spanish police in January said they had arrested 22 members of Futuro Vegetal, including the two who staged the protest at the Prado as well as the group’s top three leaders.

Messi has not yet publicly commented on the incident.

Three of Britain’s water suppliers are facing record fines totalling £168 million over historic sewage spillages.

Ofwat, the industry regulator, has proposed penalties for Thames Water, Yorkshire Water and Northumbrian Water following its largest investigation into suppliers’ performance.

The regulator found the three companies failed to adequately invest and maintain their networks, leading to repeated releases of raw sewage into the country’s waterways.

David Black, the chief executive of Ofwat, said: “Ofwat has uncovered a catalogue of failure by Thames Water, Yorkshire Water and Northumbrian Water in how they ran their sewage works and this resulted in excessive spills from storm overflows.

“Our investigation has shown how they routinely released sewage into our rivers and seas, rather than ensuring that this only happens in exceptional circumstances as the law intends.”

The announcement comes amid growing public anger over the environmental and financial performance of some water companies.

Neonatal nurses are resigning from Britain’s baby units because they fear being accused of harming infants like in the case of Lucy Letby, a consultant has claimed in a new Channel 5 documentary.

In the documentary, which looks into concerns with the Letby conviction, Dr Svilena Dimitrova, a consultant neonatologist, warned that NHS problems were “endemic” and nurses were frightened they could be scapegoated for failing wards.

In August last year, Letby was convicted of the murders of seven newborns and the attempted murders of six other infants at the Countess of Chester Hospital. A retrial in July found her guilty of the attempted murder of another child.

But several scientists and doctors have since questioned the evidence, and there are concerns that not enough weight was given in the trial to levels of understaffing, poor practice and cramped conditions in the baby unit.

Since the trial it has also emerged that the ward struggled to contain infectious outbreaks that may have put the babies at risk.

Dr Dimitrova, who works for Brighton and Sussex University Hospital Trust, said: “The NHS is not what it used to be, when I started working within it. We are enormously challenged and suboptimal outcomes occur.

“I have worked in more than 15 hospitals in my career, and I’ve worked on five surgical neonatal units, and these issues are endemic.

“We can see issues that have now come to light with regards to the circumstances at the Countess of Chester, which we suspect have played a very big role in the increased incidences of deaths in these years.

“What it has definitely led to is huge fear, amid, especially the neonatal nursing body. I have never seen so many nurses resign as I have seen in the past 18 months.”

‘It’s made us worried’

An experienced neonatal nurse, who chose to remain anonymous, told the documentary-makers the Letby conviction had left staff concerned that they may be accused of killing babies.

“It’s made me and others quite worried,” she said. “I think there is a general fear of speaking up.

“The conviction has had a negative effect on our profession, it’s made us more worried about what the parents might think.

“I think it’s alarming how they’ve thrown allegations at Lucy. I realise how easily it could have been one of my colleagues or me. What’s gone on with Lucy is very close to home.”

‘Multiple problems’

Experts interviewed for the film said that the Countess of Chester had “multiple problems” and that “adverse outcomes often occur in such situations”.

An investigation by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health found that in 2017 there were organisational and environmental issues with the ward and major issues with understaffing, but the report was not shown to the jury.

As revealed this weekend in The Telegraph, the hospital had also struggled to get rid of a dangerous bacteria which had colonised taps in the neonatal unit, during the period when deaths spiked. But the jury was not told about the infection risk.

Dr Faye Skelton, programme lead of applied criminology and forensic psychology at Edinburgh Napier University, told the documentary-makers: “Lucy was an extremely experienced nurse and colleagues trusted her.

“It doesn’t seem to me that Lucy Letby being a murderer is the only explanation for all of these things happening.”

Experts also said that doctors and scientists were frightened to come forward to give evidence in the defence of people accused of harming children.

During Letby’s original trial, the prosecution called six experts but the defence did not call any.

Dr Waney Squier, whose own career was ruined when she gave evidence in the appeal case of a shaken baby, said she was not surprised that defence experts had not come forward.

Dr Squier was struck off the medical register after it was ruled she had misled the court over her evidence, but the decision was later overturned after a judge found she had not acted dishonestly.

“I think the fact there were no defence experts reflects what’s been going on in this country and it’s worse than in many places around the world,” she said.

“But there are not doctors who are willing to stand up in defence cases where there are babies and it may be challenging a lot of other people or a mainstream view, because they are frightened of being hounded out of their careers.”

Chester Police and the Countess of Chester Hospital said they could not comment while inquiries were ongoing. The Thirlwall Inquiry is due to look into issues at the hospital.

Lucy Letby: Did She Really Do It? aired at 9pm Channel 5 on Monday and on My5.