Nine supporters of Insulate Britain have been found guilty on a charge of public nuisance by a jury at Hove Crown Court. The trial that concluded today was the seventeenth Crown Court trial resulting from Insulate Britain’s 2021 campaign of nonviolent civil resistance undertaken to demand the UK government insulate Britain’s cold and leaky homes. [1]
Emily Brocklebank, 24, a psychology Student from Leeds, Benjamin Buse, 37, a research associate from Somerset, David Crawford, 69, a retired engineer from Dorking, Gwen Harrison, 45 a climate change consultant from Kendal, Di Hekt, Dr David ‘Bing’ Jones, 70 a retired doctor from Sheffield, Father Martin Newell, 55, a Catholic Priest from Haringey, Theresa Norton, 64 a carer from Scarborough and Ben Taylor, 29, a gardener from Kilburnie were charged with causing a public nuisance for stopping traffic at the Port of Dover on 24th September 2021. [2]
In line with previous Insulate Britain public nuisance trials at Hove Crown Court, the defendants have been restricted to a time limit of just 15 minutes to explain their motives for taking action to the jury. Unlike at Inner London Crown Court, defendants on trial at Hove are allowed to freely speak about their motivations, fuel poverty, carbon emissions and the climate crisis, however they must only do so within the strict time limit being imposed by the court.
After deliberating for around 8 hours the jury returned a majority verdict of guilty. The defendants will appear for sentencing in June.
In her closing address, Gwen Harrison said:
“I don’t consider myself an activist. As you can see, we’re ordinary people from all walks of life who care deeply about our fellow human beings and the rest of the living world. We’ve realised that nobody’s coming to save us and we had to step up.
There’s absolutely no doubt that if things carry on as they are, possibly in my lifetime, but certainly within the lifetime of Anna, my 10 year old niece, and all of her generation, their adult life will be spent in a brutal and barbaric world. Where vast swathes of the world can no longer grow food, and has become completely uninhabitable. Where millions, if not billions, of people are on the move in search of increasingly scarce food and water. This will, of course, lead to conflict the likes of which humans have never experienced.
No sane, rational or moral person can truly understand that and think it’s OK. The only thing a sane, rational and moral person can do when they know all this is to do what people throughout history have done in order to protect themselves, their loved ones and their fellow-human beings from tyranny. That is to disrupt. To make it impossible for the government of the day to ignore them and that is what we did as Insulate Britain.”
Speaking after the verdict Ben Taylor said:
“I find it very disturbing and saddening that two years after we sat in the road, with the cost of living crisis and the climate crisis getting worse, no significant action has yet been taken to do this basic first step of insulating Britain’s homes. These two critical problems are not going away.
“This kind of response to dealing with people protesting is typical of a scared and incompetent government. I say this because not only is this case a legal issue, but it is a deeply political one. And more than this, it is a humanitarian issue. Our government seems to be either totally lacking in imagination, or are just purely, knowingly and willingly, ignoring the desperate problems that are affecting millions of people in this country.”
Teresa Norton said:
“I am sorry that members of the jury were not able to see the bigger picture. We have been found guilty on a technicality of law – whether we planned to cause severe disruption at Dover – and not just wilful obstruction. It saddens me that we have spent two weeks deliberating this difference whilst we watch the world burn…”
Dr David Bing Jones said:
“The climate is terrifying, our government is failing and journalists are not telling the frightening truth. Fossil fuel profits are still king. We sat on the road in Dover lifting climate and home insulation right up the agenda. It’s sad that we have to cause disruption to get press interest but our action produced over a thousand articles that day and home insulation is now a political priority.”
On the 5th May the first group of six Insulate Britain defendants on trial for blocking the road at Dover Port were spared after a jury failed to reach a majority decision. After 9 hours of deliberation the jury revealed that they could not reach a majority decision and that more time would not help to achieve a result, the jury was therefore discharged and the trial ended. In summing up the judge in the first Dover blockade trial, Judge Gold described to the jury, what lies ahead for this country as ‘Armageddon’. [3]
In the sixteen Insulate Britain jury trials for public nuisance charges to date, four trials have resulted in a hung jury, two trials have resulted in acquittals, seven have resulted in a guilty verdict and three have been deferred. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has applied for retrials in the three cases where the jury failed to reach a majority verdict; the twelve people to whom this applies have been told to expect the retrials to take place early in 2024. This is despite the Code for Crown Prosecutors which states that the CPS must only bring cases where there is a “realistic prospect of conviction”. The current rate of successful convictions of Insulate Britain supporters brought to trial for a charge of public nuisance is 43.75%. [4]
The CPS has chosen to summon a total of 56 supporters to answer at least 201 charges of public nuisance across at least 45 jury trials the last of which is scheduled to begin on 4th December 2023, and now additional retrials planned into 2024. These trials are planned to be heard across Inner London, Hove, Lewes and Reading Crown Courts and we estimate will take up at least 1,462 hours of court time at a cost of over £1 million. [5]
Three people have been jailed since February for telling the truth in court in defiance of Judge Reid’s gagging order sought to ban defendants speaking about their motivations, fuel poverty or the climate crisis. A further six have been sent to prison after pledging to continue in civil resistance despite being found guilty of public nuisance. The judge who has provided over thirteen Insulate Britain jury trials so far which have taken place at Inner London Crown Court, Judge Reid, has indicated that only immediate custodial sentences rather than suspended sentences are appropriate for anyone who vows to continue. [6]
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/2021/09/24/insulate-britain-blocks-the-port-of-dover/
[4] https://www.cps.gov.uk/publication/code-crown-prosecutors
[5] Workings:
Total hours – Each Public Nuisance trial has been scheduled to take 5 days. The court sits for at least 6 hours each day (45 trials x 5 days x 6 hours = 1,350 hours)
Total cost – The CPS claims prosecution costs of £5,000 per person tried and found guilty of Public Nuisance (201 charges x £5,000 a time = £1,005,000)
[6] David Nixon Jailed for telling the whole truth during trial: https://insulatebritain.com/2023/02/07/insulate-britain-supporter-jailed-for-eight-weeks-for-telling-the-truth-in-court/
Amy Pritchard and Cllr Giovanna Lewis Jailed for telling the whole truth during trial: https://insulatebritain.com/2023/03/03/two-insulate-britain-supporters-jailed-for-seven-weeks-for-mentioning-fuel-poverty-and-climate-in-court/
Alyson Lee, David Nixon and Christian Murray-Lesley jailed for telling the whole truth during sentencing: https://insulatebritain.com/2023/04/18/breaking-three-insulate-britain-supporters-sent-to-prison-after-they-pledge-to-continue-civil-resistance/