A Just Stop Oil protester who grounded Heathrow flights after scaling the M25's gantry has been found guilty of causing public nuisance.
Cressida Gethin, 22, a music student at Cambridge University, was convicted of causing a public nuisance contrary to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022.
The jury at Isleworth Crown Court delivered its verdict by a majority of 10 to two.
Gethin's actions on July 20, 2022, delayed 3,923 British Airways passengers’ journeys.
Cressida Gethin was found guilty of causing a public nuisance
PA
Gethin was keen to stress the consequence did not amount to the charge.
However, the student did not dispute scaling the gantry near the UK's busiest airport.
Gethin, who was self-represented, told the court in her closing statement: “If you believed that the protest causing the delays was intended to create meaningful, positive change, would you have defined the delay as ‘serious inconvenience’?
“Or would you have experienced it as a proportionate and manageable inconvenience?
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An image of delays at Heathrow Airport
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"Given that the policy change the protest was seeking to achieve would literally save thousands of lives in the coming decades.”
Judge Hannah Duncan claimed "evidence about climate change wasn't admissible or relevant".
She conceded the average person would consider the climate crisis "far more serious" than a nuisance.
However, Judge Duncan also stressed “that’s not what they (the jury) are considering”.
Cressida Gethin (left), Emma Mani and Alexander Wilcox outside Ealing Magistrates' Court
PA
Prosecutor Neil Griffin revealed Gethin refused to answer police pleas to demount the gantry.
He said: “What she did prevented thousands of people from being able to freely use the M25 and the surrounding roads.
“It’s not for one individual to say I believe in this so I’m going to stop you from using this motorway, I’m going to make your life miserable for hours and hours and hours.”
The 22-year-old will return for sentencing on May 3.
