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A teenager from Australia has faced legal proceedings after allegedly defacing a large blue sculpture of a legendary being by affixing googly eyes to it.

Amelia Vanderhorst, 19 years old, appeared remotely at the local court in the state of South Australia on Tuesday, charged with a single charge of property damage.

Officials commented at the time of the recent event, the local council explained that surveillance video captured a person placing artificial eyes on the sculpture, which residents have nicknamed the “Cast in Blue”.

Ms Vanderhorst did not enter a plea and told the court she was ill, as reported by media sources, with the judge recommending her to secure a lawyer before her upcoming hearing in the final month of the year.

The following day the reported event, the local mayor stated that repairs to the much-loved public artwork would be expensive as the adhesive eyes were impossible to be removed without damaging the art piece.

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

She added the local government would seek the “substantial” restoration expenses from those accountable for the damage.

When the artwork was first proposed, it drew mixed reactions from the local community due to its price tag and design.

Costing A$136,000 ($89,000; sixty-eight thousand pounds), the artwork represents a mythical megafauna, with the creators influenced by an ancient marsupial ant-eater discovered in nearby caverns that was “huge, slow-moving, and intriguing”.