Criminal damage charges against Greenpeace protestors thrown out
Evidence from Rishi Sunak's North Yorkshire home was too "tenuous"
The case against four Greenpeace protesters who held a protest on top of Rishi Sunak’s North Yorkshire home has been thrown out.
The group climbed onto the property in Kirby Sigston last august and unfurled black drapes which covered one side of the mansion.
They say they were protesting against more oil and gas drill sites in the North Sea.
They were charged with criminal damage but York magistrates court has ruled there isn’t enough evidence to prove they caused damage to the tiles.
"So tenuous"
Amy Rugg-Easey, 33, Alexandra Wilson, 32, Mathieu Soete, 38, and Michael Grant, 64, had been accused of damaging 15 roof slates during the five-hour demonstration.
District Judge Adrian Lower ruled that the four activists had no case to answer.
Their trial started in July, but after the prosecution closed its case defence lawyer Owen Greenhall submitted that there was no case to answer as it could not be proved the roof damage was caused during the protest.
Giving his ruling today (20th September), Judge Lower said he had concluded the evidence against the defendants was "so tenuous" that no court would convict them.
Outside the court after the dismissal, one of the defendants, Mike Grant, said:
"Justice and common sense prevailed in court today, but that hasn’t been the case for many activists recently. We have become a country that regularly sends peaceful protestors to jail, with some facing years behind bars for trying to preserve a habitable planet for us all. This has to stop.
"Peaceful protest is a vital part of our democracy - it gave us votes for women, the right to a weekend, and bans on commercial whaling and fracking. Only last year, Rishi Sunak was planning to hand out hundreds of new fossil fuel licences after bringing in new laws to criminalise peaceful protest. His oil and gas plans have been rejected by voters along with his government, but the damaging consequences of his anti-protest legislation live on.
"We want to thank all activists who have the courage to take risks and make sacrifices to protect the living world and our democracy. The last government’s plans to ‘max out’ North Sea oil and gas were deeply reckless, and not all of the damage they did can be prevented now.
"But every tiny fraction of a degree of future heating avoided is a life, a village, a species, a future saved somewhere in the world, and it is our moral duty to stand up and fight for it. And for Keir Starmer's government we have a simple question: how much longer will they sit back and watch as this draconian crackdown on dissent keeps unfolding on their watch?"