Just Stop Oil activists sentenced to 4 and 5 year prison sentences for planning to block M25 in London

Protesters show their support for jailed climate activists outside Southwark Crown Court in London on July 18, 2024. Vuk Valcic / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty Images

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Five Just Stop Oil supporters have been sentenced to record four and five year prison sentences for plotting to cause public nuisance by coordinating four days of protests on the M25 in London in November 2022.

Judge Christopher Hehir, who sentenced the protesters – Roger Hallam, Louise Lancaster, Daniel Shaw, Cressida Gethin and Lucia Whittaker De Abreu – said they had “crossed the line from concerned activist to fanatic”, The Guardian reported.

Hallam was sentenced to five years in prison, the other four were sentenced to four years.

The sentences are believed to be the longest ever imposed for nonviolent protest in the UK, surpassing those of Morgan Trowland and Marcus Decker — Just Stop Oil protesters who climbed the Dartford Crossing — who were sentenced to three years and two years and seven months respectively.

“The corruption of our judges by the carbon state has crossed a line,” Hallam said during the trial, as BBC News reported. “This is an opportunity and an obligation to act. We have a limited amount of time to stop the unimaginable horrors of climate and social collapse – and to save our democracy.”

Conspiracy to cause a nuisance became law in the UK in 2022. It makes direct action illegal if it causes “serious harm” to the public, which can include injury, damage to property, serious distress, inconvenience or annoyance.

In the M25 case, the judge said that Parliament had made it clear that it considered non-violent direct action against national infrastructure a serious offence punishable by up to 10 years in prison, or longer for certain violent crimes.

The five protesters had attempted to recruit volunteers via Zoom for actions on the M25, which included climbing the footbridges, The Guardian reported.

“What kind of country locks people up for years “Why should we have the right to plan a peaceful protest, let alone discuss it on a Zoom call? We are giving a free hand to the polluting elite who are robbing us of a liveable planet, while locking up those who try to stop them – it makes no sense,” said Amy Cameron, program director of Greenpeace UK, as CNN reported.

Hallam had stated his intention for the actions to cause “the greatest disruption in modern British history”, with the aim of forcing the government to meet the core demand of Just Stop Oil – halting new oil and gas exploration in the North Sea, The Guardian reported.

“The offences committed by the five of you are very serious indeed and should be met with lengthy prison sentences,” Judge Hehir said at Southwark Crown Court.

The judge recognized the legitimacy of the man-made climate crisis and that measures had to be taken to limit it.

“I recognise that at least some of the concerns that motivate you are shared, at least to some extent, by many,” Hehir said. “But the simple fact is that each of you crossed the line from concerned campaigner to fanatic some time ago. You have appointed yourselves as the sole arbiters of what should be done about climate change, and you are bound by neither the principles of democracy nor the rule of law. And your fanaticism makes you completely disregardful of the rights of your fellow citizens. You have taken it upon yourself to decide that your fellow citizens should suffer disruption and harm, and how much disruption and harm they should suffer, just so you can parade your views.”

Gethin said the action was needed to stop irreversible climate change.

“I would like to remind the court once again that my reasons for taking action were not based on beliefs or opinions. The Earth’s life support systems are being disintegrated by human activities, whether we believe it or not,” Gethin said, as reported by The Guardian. “I deeply regret that this action was necessary… I maintain that it was necessary and I stand by my actions as the most effective option available to me.”

Supporters of the defendants expressed outrage at the sentences, which followed a two-week trial. During the trial, Hehir ruled that evidence relating to climate change should not be considered by the jury, even though that was what the defendants said was the primary motivation for their actions, and a reasonable justification for them.

“Today is a black day for peaceful environmental protest” in the UK, said Michel Forst, the special rapporteur for environmental activists for the United Nations, as reported by The Guardian. “This statement should shock the conscience of every member of the public. It should also put us all on edge about the state of civil rights and liberties in the UK. Statements like today’s set a very dangerous precedent, not just for environmental protest, but for any form of peaceful protest that may at some point not be in line with the interests of the current government.”

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