Bodycam footage shows moment Just Stop Oil protestor is brought down
Watch as one of the protestors is recorded singing before he is arrested
Police body-worn camera footage captured the moment a Just Stop Oil protestor was brought down from the Dartford Crossing after causing "gridlock for miles around".
Marcus Decker, 34 and Morgan Trowland, 40, have been found guilty of causing a public nuisance following the incident last year.
The Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links the M25 in Essex and Kent, was closed from 4am on October 17 to 9pm the following day.
Basildon Crown Court was told the pair used ropes and other climbing equipment to shuffle up the cables of the bridge.
Watch the protestors confirm to police they were not there for a suicide attempt
Mr Adam King, prosecuting, said they ascended to a point close to 200ft above the road, close to the top of the towers, and unfurled a “giant Just Stop Oil banner” and “rigged up hammocks and stayed there”.
In police body-worn camera footage played to jurors, the protesters confirmed to attending officers that they were there to protest and not for a suicide attempt.
Explaining what the video showed, Mr King said: “You can see they’re making fairly slow progress as they shuffle up astride the cable.”
He said that by 10.48am some rope ended up somewhere between the towers, but that there was no footage of it falling.
Drone footage shows the protestors on opposite sides of the bridge
Jurors were also shown drone footage of the two men, up towers on opposite sides of the bridge, with their hammocks out and banner displayed.
“They obviously managed to throw a rope between them to rig this up,” said Mr King.
As a cherry picker extended upwards to fetch him down, Decker was recorded on footage singing “we’ll be the change that the world needs to see”.
Marcus Decker and Morgan Trowland were found guilty by a jury by unanimous verdicts following more than two hours of deliberations.
Judge Shane Collery KC remanded them in custody to be sentenced on April 13.