Just Stop Oil protesters’ jail sentences shortened after appeal | Environmental activism

Six protesters jailed for their roles in various climate demonstrations have had their sentences reduced on appeal.

The Just Stop Oil co-founder Roger Hallam was originally jailed for five years for agreeing to disrupt traffic by having protesters climb on to gantries over the M25 for four successive days. His sentence was reduced to one of four years.

Daniel Shaw, Louise Lancaster, Lucia Whittaker De Abreu and Cressida Gethin originally received four-year jail terms for their involvement in the same protest.

Shaw and Lancaster’s sentences were reduced to three years, while Whittaker De Abreu and Gethin’s sentences were reduced to 30 months.

Gaie Delap, who was previously jailed for 20 months for her role in protests on the M25 during which they climbed on to gantries, had her sentence reduced to one of 18 months.

The other 10 protesters who were part of the mass appeal had their claims denied.

In a two-day hearing last month, 16 activists jailed for taking part in various disruptive protests in 2022 had argued that their trial judges had erred by failing to offer the usual leniency afforded acts of civil disobedience on conscientious grounds.

“They are the only known examples of punishment of peaceful protesters in which no reduction at all was made for such motivation,” said documents filed with the court by the applicants.

Sentences handed to four activists who organised roadblock protests on the M25 were “the highest of their kind in modern British history”, while others were “considerably longer than one would have expected”, said Danny Friedman KC, as he presented the appellants’ grounds for appeal.

“If these sentences on appeal are allowed to stand … they would constitute a paradigm shift in this area of criminal law,” he added.

More details soon …