Five Just Stop Oil protesters, including one of its co-founders, have been jailed for conspiring to organize protests that blocked the M25 motorway. [emphasis, links added]
Roger Hallam, an environmental activist who was one of the founding members of the group, agreed to disrupt traffic by having protesters climb onto gantries over the motorway for four successive days in November 2022.
The 58-year-old was joined by Daniel Shaw, 38, Louise Lancaster, 58, Lucia Whittaker De Abreu, 35, and Cressida Gethin, 22, as they were all sentenced at Southwark Crown Court on Thursday.
Hallam was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment while the remaining four defendants were each handed four years’ imprisonment.
Prosecutors alleged the protests, which saw 45 people climb up the gantries, led to an economic cost of at least £765,000, while the cost to the Metropolitan Police was more than £1.1 million.
They also allegedly caused more than 50,000 hours of vehicle delay, affecting more than 700,000 vehicles, and left the M25 ‘compromised’ for more than 120 hours.
Prosecutor Jocelyn Ledward KC told the court that a police officer suffered a concussion and bruising after being knocked off his motorbike in traffic caused by one of the protests on November 9, 2022.
All five defendants joined a Zoom call on November 2, 2022, in which discussions were held about the planned protests, based on ‘what was said expressly and what could be inferred’, and were aiming to recruit others for the protests on the call, Ms. Ledward told the court.
A journalist from the Sun newspaper, who had joined the call pretending to be interested in the protest, managed to record some of it and passed the recordings on to the police.
Judge Christopher Hehir said the Zoom call showed ‘how intricately planned the disruption was and the sophistication involved’, and was ‘compelling evidence’ of the existence of a conspiracy.
There was ‘extensive organization and planning’ for the protests and each defendant had a ‘significant role’ in the conspiracy, Ms. Ledward said.
The defendants were convicted by a jury of conspiracy intentionally to cause a public nuisance, contrary to Section 78 of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 and Section 1 of the Criminal Law Act 1977, on July 11.
The protestors, referred to as the Whole Truth Five by Just Stop Oil on social media, spoke to confirm their names in court and shouted ‘We love you’ from the dock immediately after the sentences were passed down.
🚨 BREAKING: The #WholeTruthFive Arrive at Southwark Crown Court
⛓️ Today, Lou, Cressie, Lucia, Roger and Daniel will be sentenced by Judge Hehir, and face up to 10 years in prison.
🧡 A crowd of supporters gathered to welcome them as they were driven from prison. pic.twitter.com/P6dU18i3ds
— Just Stop Oil (@JustStop_Oil) July 18, 2024
Judge Hehir said: ‘The plain fact is that each of you some time ago has crossed the line from concerned campaigner to fanatic.
‘You have appointed yourselves as sole arbiters of what should be done about climate change.’
Addressing Hallam, the judge said: ‘You are the theoretician, the ‘ideas’ man.
‘In my judgment, you sit at the very highest level of the conspiracy.’
The judge told the court that 11 protesters were arrested on suspicion of contempt outside the court during the case’s trial on July 2, but the court had discontinued its proceedings against them on July 11 after he became ‘concerned’ about their position.
TV naturalist and Just Stop Oil supporter Chris Packham was outside the courthouse.
Speaking to protesters he said: ‘At this point, I feel physically sick, and I don’t think I’ve ever felt that in this way ever before.
‘I’ve just watched what can only be described as judicial thuggery, a total disregard for any mitigation circumstances when it came to sentencing. Disproportionately high sentences given to peaceful climate protesters in a world which is on fire.
‘In a world which is burning and flooding. In a world in the midst of a biodiversity crisis.‘.
Read rest at Daily Mail
I would like to see Hallam and his Partners in Crime Birds Birdhouses and Feeders Cleaning up a Highway and Planting Trees and show real concern instead of making total pests of themselves
Can anyone imagine what would happen to these people if they tried their stunts in say Russia, or China?
I’m not suggesting we should mirror the policing tactics of those countries, brcause we know what would happen to them. If we treated disrupters like this mob for what they are – anarchists, then they and others like them, would think twice about blocking main roads again.
A handful of ideologues cannot be allowed to disrupt the lives of so many people. Time to get tough!!!
The real cause of these protests including defacing art is the judicial’s system refusal to impose just punishments. The sentences for the blockage M25 Motorway reverses this trend and if it continues will discourage other acts of lawlessness.
Just Stop Oil are the typical Useful Idiots and the usual other useful idiots that support them should all live without anything to do with Fossil Fuels and that means no more groceries and other everyday products that depend upon transportation and Semi Trucks and Fossil Fuels it will surprise the Garden Burger right out of them
Well, since the world is on fire then you can do whatever you want, all chaos and anarchy is justified.
They should lock Packham up with the rest. He left the BBC to become a full time fanatic.