Just Stop Oil activist ‘delayed 4,000 airplane passengers’ in protest over 40C warmth

A Just Stop Oil protester delayed 4,000 airplane passengers in a protest in opposition to the UK reaching the most popular temperature on file, a court docket heard.

Cambridge University music pupil Cressida Gethin, 22, scaled a gantry above the M25 near Heathrow on July 20, 2022, the day after the UK recorded a temperature of over 40C for the primary time.

As a results of the protest by the local weather activist group, 3,923 British Airways customers have been affected by cancellations and delays, mentioned senior supervisor at British Airways, Edwin Hall, in an announcement learn to Isleworth Crown Court on Thursday.

Broadcaster and environmentalist Chris Packham, 62, advised the west London court docket on Wednesday that he was caught within the visitors for 4 to 5 hours throughout a visit from Hampshire to Surrey, the place he was engaged on a BBC programme.

He advised jurors he got here to “sympathise” with the very fact he was compelled to consider climate change whereas he waited.

During her trial, Gethin, who has taken two years out of her college research, mentioned she aimed to “interrupt business as usual” and draw media consideration to the “dire situation” represented by the temperature in Britain.

That day, news of the protest aired on Good Morning Britain earlier than she had scaled the gantry, she mentioned.

The defendant added that she didn’t realise she was so near Heathrow and didn’t select the placement.

Reading her closing assertion, the defendant, who was self-represented, advised the jury: “You must use your judgement as human beings, who are aware of the context in which this action was taken – the deadly 40C heatwave, thousands of people dying of heatstroke.

“If your house had just burnt down, would four hours in traffic feel serious in comparison?

“If you were a climate refugee, forced out of your home country by heat, drought and social conflict, would missing a flight feel serious in comparison?

“In a vacuum, you could reasonably assume that someone stuck in a four hour traffic jam would be feeling very annoyed.

“But we are not in a vacuum – no one here can disagree that the climate crisis we’re in is dire; billions of refugees, starvation, mass suffering and death – this is coming to us all.

“There may well have been more people in the traffic jams who felt like Chris Packham – we heard from Mr Packham that he did not feel seriously annoyed when stuck in the traffic.”

Prosecutor Neil Griffin advised the court docket that Gethin refused to come back down despite police requests to take action and warnings she was inflicting disruption.

He mentioned: “What she did prevented thousands of people from being able to freely use the M25 and the surrounding roads. It’s not for one individual to say I believe in this so I’m going to stop you from using this motorway, I’m going to make your life miserable for hours and hours and hours.”

The defendant denies one depend of inflicting a public nuisance opposite to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022.

She doesn’t dispute scaling the gantry however denies that it quantities to the cost.

The trial continues.