Co-founder of Just Stop Oil has sentence reduced after appeal
7 March 2025, 10:33 | Updated: 7 March 2025, 11:13
A founder of Just Stop Oil (JSO) has had his sentence reduced by a year following a High Court appeal.
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Roger Hallam was one of 16 activists who challenged jail terms of between 15 months and five years for their roles in four demonstrations between August and November 2022.
Six of the activists, including Hallam, saw their sentences reduced while the remaining 10 had their appeals dismissed.
As the Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr read out a summary of the Court of Appeal's ruling, several campaigners in court stood and turned their backs, wearing T-shirts that read "Corruption in Court".
Hallam was jailed for five years last July for his involvement in a protest which saw 45 people climb onto gantries over the M25, causing four days of disruption.
His sentence was reduced to four years.
Read more: Just Stop Oil activist accused of defacing Stonehenge asks judge not to hold trial during her exams
Daniel Shaw, Louise Lancaster, Lucia Whittaker De Abreu, and Cressida Gethin each received four-year jail terms for their involvement in the same protest.
Shaw and Lancaster's sentences were reduced to three years, while Whittaker De Abreu and Gethin's sentences were reduced to 30 months.
Gaie Delap, who was previously jailed for 20 months for her role in protests on the M25, had her sentence reduced to 18 months.
The 10 other protesters had their sentences upheld.
These included George Simonson, Theresa Higginson, Paul Bell and Paul Sousek, who were imprisoned for between two years and 20 months for their involvement in protests on the M25.
Larch Maxey, Chris Bennett, Samuel Johnson and Joe Howlett were jailed for between three years and 15 months after occupying tunnels dug under the road leading to the Navigator Oil Terminal in Thurrock, Essex, and also had their appeals dismissed.
The Court of Appeal also threw out the challenges of Phoebe Plummer and Anna Holland, who were sentenced to two years and 20 months respectively after almost "destroying" Vincent van Gogh's Sunflowers by throwing soup on its protective glass at London's National Gallery.
At a hearing in January, the activists' lawyers claimed all 16 sentences were "manifestly excessive", with the Crown Prosecution Service opposing the appeals.
Reacting to the Court of Appeal's ruling, Areeba Hamid, co-executive director at Greenpeace UK, which intervened in the appeals, said: "Despite some modest reductions, these sentences are still unprecedented and they still have no place in a democracy that upholds the right to protest."
Meanwhile, Raj Chada, head of criminal defence at Hodge Jones & Allen, which represented Roger Hallam and the other protesters, said: "The small reduction in the case of Roger Hallam recognises the extraordinarily excessive sentences that continue to be given out to protesters in England.
"It is, however, extremely disappointing that many of the other sentences were upheld.
"No country in Europe gives such draconian sentences for peaceful protests, proving we are out of kilter with the rest of the civilised world."
