Just Stop Oil protesters who stormed Wimbledon matches with confetti and puzzle pieces found guilty of aggravated trespass
William Ward, Simon Milner-Edwards and Deborah Wilde arrive at the City Of London Magistrates' Court
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Three Just Stop Oil protesters have been found guilty of aggravated trespass at Wimbledon last year.
Deborah Wilde, 69, Simon Milner-Edwards, 67, and William Ward, 66, have been found guilty at the City of London Magistrates’ Court.
The trio disrupted Wimbledon tennis matches by throwing confetti and puzzle pieces.
The City of London Magistrates’ Court was told Wilde and Milner-Edwards entered Court 18 at around 2.10pm on July 5 last year, during a match between Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov and Japan’s Sho Shimabukuro. Bodycam footage played to the court showed them wearing Just Stop Oil t-shirts.
William Ward on court 18 throwing confetti on to the grass during Katie Boulter's first-round match against Daria Saville
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The judge said: "Firstly I want to thank all of the defendants for the way they’ve conducted themselves this evening, all of you will have been very stressed.
He said it was "not in dispute" that each defendant "sprinkled some confetti or tinsel and some jigsaw pieces on to that playing field" and said that he "found it a fact" that they were trespassing.
He accepted that the three protesters waited for a break in play, but added: "Nevertheless I find as a fact that each of them intended to cause disruption to the tennis and as a result they did cause some disruption on that day."
The trio had denied that the protest on July 5, 2023 at Court 18 amounted to aggravated trespass.
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Ground staff clear confetti from court 18 after the protest
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The court was told Wilde and Milner-Edwards were arrested at 2.16pm and around two hours later, Ward, also captured on bodycam footage wearing a Just Stop Oil t-shirt, went onto the same court.
By that time, British player Katie Boulter had started competing against Australia’s Daria Saville.
Oerations director at the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC), which runs the competition, Michelle Dite claimed Ward’s protest was met with louder "boos" from the crowd, many of whom had witnessed the first incident too.
She added that Wimbledon staff cleared the jigsaw pieces and confetti by hand and using leaf blowers.
GB News has approached Just Stop Oil for a comment.
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