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Two Just Stop Oil protesters who scaled a bridge over Dartford Crossing, causing a traffic jam when police closed the bridge to traffic, have been found guilty of causing a public nuisance. Morgan Trowland, 40, and Marcus Decker, 34, used ropes and other climbing equipment to move the cables on the bridge, prosecutor Adam King told Basildon Crown Court earlier in the trial. He said they went up to a point nearly 200 feet above the highway and unfurled a "giant Just Stop Oil banner" and "rigged up hammocks and stayed there."
The Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links the M25 in Essex and Kent, was closed from 4am on October 17 last year until 9pm the following day, the prosecutor said.
“This closure caused traffic jams for miles around during this period, which we believe was the goal,” King said.
Small businesses lost, in some cases, hundreds of thousands of pounds, people missed the funerals of their loved ones, children were left on the side of the road waiting for buses.
"It was because of the outage that the incident made national news."
He continued: 'Small businesses have lost, in some cases, hundreds of thousands of pounds, people have missed the funerals of loved ones, children have been left on the side of the road waiting for buses.
He said the men came down around 5:30 pm on October 18 "with the help of the police and a very large bucket crane", but the bridge was not reopened to traffic until later.
King had told the jury: 'We are not here to challenge government policy on climate change.
Trowland had said as evidence: "We went up (to the bridge) to send a warning message, to put up a banner that said Just Stop Oil, and to get that message across through interviews with reporters."
He said the activist group's goal was to get the government to stop allowing oil and gas production.
"You are adding fuel to the fire of climate change."
Trowland, from Islington, north London, and Decker, 34, with no fixed address, denied causing a public nuisance.
They were found guilty by a unanimous jury after more than two hours of deliberation.
Judge Shane Collery KC kept them in custody for sentencing on April 13.
He said: "This court is considering custodial sentences."
He added: "We are dealing with a major nuisance that has been caused."
Young people will not die for the profits of an oil magnate
Energy Security Secretary Grant Shapps said on Twitter: “I welcome the court's decision today.
“The right to protest cannot be allowed to trump the right of the law-abiding majority to spend the day free of selfish and anti-social riots.
"We are repressing those guerrilla tactics that cause misery for the majority."
Just Stop Oil's Sean Irish told the court that the verdicts were "quite disappointing".
"Obviously it's quite disappointing to see this happen," he said.
“We saw at the Old Bailey that a jury has the right to acquit according to their conscience, whether they were aware of that I don't know, but it's disappointing to see them come back with a guilty verdict. ”
He said the climate crisis was "scarier" than the prospect of a prison sentence.
"Young people are not going to die for the profits of an oil magnate," Irish said.
"We are not going to give up easily, we are not going to accept it, we will defend ourselves.
“The longer the government suppresses peaceful protests, the more dangerous they become for the government.”
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