Just Stop Oil protesters jailed for conspiracy to block M25

Just Stop Oil protestors, including one of its co-founders, have been jailed for conspiring to organise protests that blocked the M25 motorway.

Five protestors - Roger Hallam, 58, from Wales, Daniel Shaw, 38, from Northampton, Louise Lancaster, 58, from Cambridge, Lucia Whittaker De Abreu, 35, from Derby and Cressida Gethin, 22, from Hereford - agreed to cause disruption to traffic by having protesters climb onto gantries over the motorway for four successive days in November 2022.

Hallam, co-founder of Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion, was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment while the remaining four defendants were each handed four years’ imprisonment.

It comes as three airports have been granted legal orders which ban climate activists from their sites.

The protests led to an economic cost of at least £765,000, prosecutors alleged, while the cost to the Metropolitan Police was more than £1.1 million.

More than 50,000 hours of vehicle delays were caused by the demonstrations, which saw 45 people climb up the gantries.

An estimated 700,000 vehicles were impacted on the M25, which was compromised for more than 120 hours.

A police officer suffered concussion and bruising after being knocked off his motorbike in traffic caused by one of the protests on November 9, 2022, prosecutor Jocelyn Ledward KC said at the sentencing hearing, at Southwark Crown Court, on Thursday.

All five defendants, who were referred to as the Whole Truth Five by Just Stop Oil on social media, joined a Zoom call on November 2, 2022.

Discussions were held during the call about the planned protests, based off "what was said expressly and what could be inferred", with attempts made to recruit others for the protests on the call, Ms Ledward told the court.

A journalist from the Sun newspaper, who had joined the call pretending to be interested in the protest, managed to record some of it and passed the recordings on to the police.

Judge Christopher Hehir said the Zoom call showed "how intricately planned the disruption was and the sophistication involved", and was "compelling evidence" of the existence of a conspiracy.

There was "extensive organisation and planning" for the protests and each defendant had a "significant role" in the conspiracy, Ms Ledward said.

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The defendants were convicted by a jury 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, on July 11.

The defendants spoke to confirm their names in court and shouted "We love you" from the dock immediately after the sentences were passed down.

Judge 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, the judge said: "You are the theoretician, the 'ideas' man.

"In my judgment you sit at the very highest level of the conspiracy."

The judge told the court that 11 protesters were arrested on suspicion of contempt outside the court during the case's trial on July 2, but the court had discontinued its proceedings against them on July 11 after he became "concerned" about their position.

There have been no protests on the M25 since November 2022.

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