Two Just Stop Oil protesters bailed after 'causing £52,000 of damage' attempting to spray Taylor Swift's private jet with paint
22 July 2024, 12:27 | Updated: 22 July 2024, 12:46
Two Just Stop Oil protesters have appeared in court accused of damaging two private jets at Stansted Airport after covering the aircraft in orange paint.
Listen to this article
Loading audio...
Appearing in court on Tuesday, the Just Stop Oil activists are said to have used angle grinders to break through an airport fence at around 5am on June 20.
The pair, armed with fire extinguishers filled with orange paint, then took aim at the private jets which were parked on the runway, with prosecutors alleging the clean-up cost totalled more than £52,000.
Jennifer Kowalski, 28, of Dumbarton in Scotland, and Cole Macdonald, 22, of Brighton, appeared before Chelmsford Crown Court on Monday.
An earlier hearing heard how the full cost was not yet known, given the need for repairs to the fence and additional funding to cover an increase in security.
The pair targeted the private airfield at Stansted Airport at around 5:00am on June 20, hours after pop star Taylor Swift’s jet touched down on the runway ahead of the UK leg of her Eras World Tour.
Just Stop Oil said they were "demanding an emergency treaty to end fossil fuels by 2030.”
The defendants, who are on conditional bail, were not asked to enter pleas to charges.
Appearing at an earlier hearing at Chelmsford Magistrates' Court, the two protesters pleaded not guilty to causing criminal damage and interfering with national infrastructure.
Kowalski and Macdonald are also both charged with aggravated trespass, though they have not been asked to indicate their pleas to this.
Judge Christopher Morgan, addressing Kowalski and Macdonald on Monday, said: "Please return to this court on August 15 - I anticipate that you will.
"If you enter on that occasion acceptable guilty pleas then your credit is preserved."
Speaking on their actions shortly after the incident, Macdonald, 22, said: “We’re living in two worlds: one where billionaires live in luxury, able to fly in private jets away from the other, where unliveable conditions are being imposed on countless millions".
"Meanwhile, this system that is allowing extreme wealth to be accrued by a few, to the detriment of everyone else, is destroying the conditions necessary to support human life in a rapidly accelerating never-ending ‘cruel summer’.
"Billionaires are not untouchable, climate breakdown will affect every single one of us,” they added.
After appearing in court, the pair were both bailed until the next court hearing, with the case adjourned until August 15.
It comes just days after five Just Stop Oil members - including one of its co-founders - have been jailed for between four and five years for conspiring to organise protests that blocked the M25.
They made plans for protestors to climb onto overhead gantries for four days in November 2022.
