Five Just Stop Oil protesters jailed after blocking M25 and causing CHAOS for four days
Five Just Stop Oil protesters jailed after blocking M25
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Five Just Stop Oil (JSO) protesters who created traffic chaos by blocking the M25 have been jailed for up to five years each.
Roger Hallam, 58, Daniel Shaw, 38, Louise Lancaster, 58, Lucia Whittaker De Abreu, 35, and Cressida Gethin, 22, were found guilty last week of conspiracy to cause a public nuisance for coordinating direct action.
The five environmental activists organised protests blocking the M25 motorway for four successive days in November 2022.
At Southwark Crown Court, Hallam, a JSO co-founder, was sentenced to five years imprisonment, while the other four were each given four years.
Five Just Stop Oil protesters jailed after blocking M25
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Judge Christopher Hehir said: "The plain fact is that each of you some time ago has crossed the line from concerned campaigner to fanatic.
"You have appointed yourselves as sole arbiters of what should be done about climate change."
Addressing Hallam, he added: "You are the theoretician, the 'ideas' man. In my judgement, you sit at the very highest level of the conspiracy."
The defendants, referred to as the Whole Truth Five by JSO, shouted "we love you" after the sentences were handed out.
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An activist puts up a banner reading 'Just Stop Oil' atop an electronic traffic sign along M25 on November 10, 2022
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They are thought to be the longest sentences even given in the UK for non-violent protest, beating those handed to two other JSO demonstrators who scaled a bridge on the Dartford Crossing in October 2022.
The court heard that the protesters wanted to block most of the M25 to cause the "biggest disruption in British modern history", Hallam said on a Zoom call with the other four activists.
It resulted in chaos on the M25 over four days, resulting in nearly 51,000 hours of driver delays and left the motorway "compromised" for more than 120 hours.
A police officer also suffered from concussion and bruising after he was knocked off his motorbike in traffic during the protest.
The defendants were sentenced at Southwark Crown Court
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On the Zoom call, the five planned to recruit volunteers to join in on the disruption. An undercover reporter from The Sun joined in on the call and then shared the details with the police.
Last week, a jury convicted the "Whole Truth Five" of conspiracy intentionally to cause a public nuisance, contrary to section 78 of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 and Section 1 of the Criminal Law Act 1977.
Hehir told them: "You are going to prison for a very long time."
JSO called the sentences "an obscene perversion of justice" handed out for "nothing more than attending a Zoom call".