Five Just Stop Oil protesters, including Roger Hallam, one of its co-founders, have been jailed for conspiring to organise protests that blocked the M25 motorway. The Mail has more.
Roger Hallam, an environmental activist who was one of the founding members of the group, agreed to causing disruption to 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 9th 2022.
All five defendants joined a Zoom call on November 2nd 2022, in which discussions were held about the planned protests, based off “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 organisation 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 11th.
TV naturalist Chris Packham, who was outside the courthouse, was not happy.
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.
Worth reading in full.
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