Four Insulate Britain supporters were found guilty of causing a public nuisance by a Crown Court jury yesterday in the fifth trial relating to Insulate Britain’s 2021 campaign of nonviolent civil resistance undertaken to demand the UK government insulates Britain’s cold and leaky homes. [1]
Roman Paluch, Ruth Cook, Stephen Pritchard and Oliver Rock were declared guilty of causing a public nuisance in relation to the Insulate Britain roadblock at Cranford Parkway on the M4 on 1st October 2021. One other trial relating to the same roadblock has already taken place in which four defendants were acquitted. [2]
After a 5 day hearing, the jury took around 3 hours to deliberate before returning a majority guilty verdict. The four will appear again for sentencing on March 10th and they have 28 days to appeal the conviction. The maximum penalty for the common law offence of public nuisance is life imprisonment.
The trial started with Judge Silas Reid ruling that the four defendants could not refer to their motivations for blocking the motorway in their defence. As with the earlier Insulate Britain jury trials, the defendants were each barred from referring to the climate crisis, insulation or fuel poverty during the trial.
Ruth Cook, 70, a company director and former probation office from Frome said:
“To face the prospect of a prison sentence because I sat in the road for 23 minutes is obviously a disappointing result. But I am still extremely proud of what Insulate Britain achieved. Fifteen months after we took this action the UK government has finally woken up to the need to insulate our homes.
“I don’t for a second regret taking part in the campaign. It was right then and it’s even more urgent now that the government gets on with the job of cutting carbon and saving lives by insulating Britain’s leaky homes.
“I want to be able to look my grandchildren in the eye and tell them that once I knew what we faced, once I truly understood, I did whatever I could to make the world wake up to what was happening. “
Oliver Rock, 42, a carpenter from South London said:
“As the climate and ecological crisis accelerates, the attempts by the state to ignore our perilous situation become increasingly absurd and authoritarian. I am extremely grateful to my co-defendants for their courage and dignity throughout these proceedings, and for the wonderful support we have experienced.”
In the five Insulate Britain jury trials for public nuisance charges, two trials so far have resulted in acquittals and two have been deferred: this was the first guilty verdict. The first Insulate Britain jury trial was deferred until June 2023 after the Judge dismissed the jury and asked the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to consider whether proceeding with the trial was in the public interest. [3]
The Crown Prosecution Service has chosen to summon a total of 56 supporters to answer at least 201 charges of Public Nuisance across at least 51 jury trials the last of which is scheduled to begin on 4th December 2023. These trials are planned to be heard across Inner London, Hove, Lewes and Reading Crown Courts and we estimate will take up around one thousand four hundred and twenty eight hours of court time.
ENDS
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Notes to Editors
[1] Insulate Britain is a campaign group that is calling on the UK government to put in place policy and funding for a national home insulation programme starting with all social housing by 2025, and create a meaningful plan to insulate the entire UK housing stock by 2030.
Further information about Insulate Britain and our demands here:
https://insulatebritain.com/
Technical Report on home energy efficiency here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jt5FI-kinEXoqZtPDrCvnAVQ2EFn8Aea/view
Insulate Britain ‘Blue Lights’ policy: our policy is, and has always been, to move out of the way for emergency vehicles with ‘blue lights’ on.
[2]
http://insulatebritain.com/2021/10/01/insulate-britain-blocks-m4-m1/