Just Stop Oil activists who blocked M25 appeal 'manifestly excessive' sentences after rioters given shorter terms

13 August 2024, 16:17

The five Just Stop Oil (JSO) activists who were convicted for conspiring to block the M25 have appealed against their sentences claiming they were “manifestly excessive”.

The environmental activists, who were jailed following the protest in 2022, launched their appeal after those convicted for their involvement in the riots sparked by the Southport murders received comparatively smaller terms, according to reports.

Some 45 JSO protesters climbed gantries on the motorway in November 2022, forcing police to stop the traffic, as they attempted to cause gridlock across southern England.

Judge Christopher Hehir said Roger Hallam, 58, Daniel Shaw, 38, Louise Lancaster, 58, Lucia Whittaker De Abreu, 35, and Cressida Gethin, 22, had "crossed the line from concerned campaigner to fanatic".

Hallam was sentenced to five years' imprisonment while the other defendants each received four-year jail terms at Southwark Crown Court.

The sentences were the longest since the last Conservative government introduced the new law of conspiracy to cause a public nuisance, in an attempt to reduce the number of disruptive protests.

The legislation, which entails stronger sentences for protestors who block roads, was backed by current Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.

However, it was condemned by the United Nations human rights commissioner as “deeply troubling” and “disproportionate”, with Dale Vince, a millionaire Labour Party donor, calling on Labour to intervene in the case.

In their appeal, the activists will argue that the sentences were “manifestly excessive” and that the judge “appears to have punished the defendants for disobeying his orders not to explain their motivations for taking such action”.

They will also claim they were barred from producing evidence of the immediate threat posed by climate change.

Campaign groups are reportedly planning a new wave of action calling for the release of climate activists from the UK’s prisons.

A spokesman for Defend Our Juries said: “Both the recent race riots and the filling of our prisons with climate truth-tellers result from the previous government’s attempt to distract from the existential crises we face by demonising easy targets.

“It’s time to leave that toxic legacy behind, and to bring people together with an honest confrontation with reality.”

A spokesman for Just Stop Oil claimed that “direct action works” and that it was only after the group disrupted the M25 Starmer committed to ending licences for new oil and gas.

“The Whole Truth Five [the five jailed JSO activists] along with others did the best thing they could, according to the evidence, to prevent catastrophic and irreversible harm to the public and life on earth,” the spokesman said.

“Judge Hehir’s imagined ‘deterrent effect’ is both cynical and naive: it assumes we don’t love our children, but we do. It assumes we have no care for the future of our country, but we do. It assumes we don’t want to live, but we do.”

The appeal also comes as Avaaz, an America-based campaign group, started a national petition condemning the “gagging and jailing of peaceful climate protesters in UK courts”.

The petition, which also calls on Starmer to repeal the “repressive” Tory legislation and “restore the UK’s influential role in upholding democratic rights and international law”, has so far gathered more than 20,000 signatures.

Read more: 'We will help clean up': Just Stop Oil explains protest pause over civil unrest

Read more: Five Just Stop Oil eco-activists jailed over M25 protest

The intention of the activists was to block most of the M25, preventing traffic from other roads from joining the motorway, the court heard.

The disruption caused nearly 51,000 hours of driver delays as parts of the motorway in Kent, Surrey, Essex and Hertfordshire closed, the court heard.

People missed flights, medical appointments and exams. Two lorries collided, and a police motorcyclist came off his bike during one of the protests on 9 November 2022 while trying to bring traffic to a halt in a “rolling road block”.

Prosecutors alleged the protests led to an economic cost of at least £765,000, while the cost to the Metropolitan Police was put at more than £1.1m.

Meanwhile, a 13-week campaign by Just Stop Oil (JSO) last summer cost the Met more than £7.7 million - the equivalent cost of 23,500 officer shifts.