Four Insulate Britain have been found guilty by a jury at Hove Crown Court for taking part in Insulate Britain’s 2021 campaign of nonviolent civil resistance undertaken to demand the UK government insulate Britain’s cold and leaky homes. [1]
Janine Eagling, Alyson Lee, Rob Stuart and Suzie Webb were charged with causing a public nuisance for stopping traffic at the Port of Dover on 24th September 2021. Two other defendants Stefania Morosi and Christian Rowe, pleaded guilty before the trial began. [2]
In contrast to previous Insulate Britain public nuisance trials at Inner London Crown Court and at Hove Crown Court, the defendants have been allowed to freely speak about their motivations for taking action and to mention fuel poverty, carbon emissions and the climate crisis in court, even though Judge Van der Zwart directed the jury to ignore these motivations as irrelevant.
After deliberating for around 4 hours yesterday the jury returned a unanimous verdict of guilty. At sentencing today, the judge awarded each defendant an 18 months community order with 140 hours community service to be completed within 12 months, £500 costs and a £95 surcharge.
In her closing address yesterday Alyson Lee said:
“It is important for me to be able to explain my motivations for my own wellbeing and so people don’t think I am just crazy. We are in a struggle against a government which is failing to protect us and a justice system which is failing to prosecute the killers. I keep hoping that one day I will wake up and find that it has all been a nightmare.
I am acting in civil resistance to a government that has broken the ‘social contract’ – as Rob said, in those circumstances, we have a moral duty to rebel in the name of life. The science is clear and it is being ignored. Those of us who are sounding the alarm are being silenced, punished and ignored by the government.
The crises we face will affect us all – it really angers me when someone refers to ‘your cause’ – when our cause is basically to maintain a liveable future for everyone – surely that is everyone’s cause. Everyone wants to protect what they hold dear and it is all at risk.
So, I thank you for taking on the responsibility of judging this case, especially as public nuisance is such a serious offence – And as the judge has told you, it is your judgement and your judgement alone that counts. We are all normal people trying to do the right thing.”
Speaking after the verdict Janine Eagling, 61, a retired IT Project Manager from Walthamstow said
“I feel that our motivations for blocking the road at Dover were made explicit during the trial. We acted out of conscience to challenge this criminal government’s inaction which has left thousands suffering from fuel poverty and dying in cold homes. Two years further on and as pointed out today by the government’s own climate advisors the climate change committee still nothing has changed.
Unfortunately, the judge ruled that our motivations were irrelevant. I am disappointed that the jury did not exercise their right to acquit, according to their convictions. However, I feel they will never forget their experience of being a jury member on our trial. We remain strong.”
Suzie Webb, mother of two, and director of a small company from Cambridge said:
“In one sense the verdict doesn’t matter. The Citizens Advice Bureau report last week said that getting all homes in the UK to an `EPC rating of C will save our economy £40 billion, among other benefits and would prevent thousands of deaths attributable to cold housing.”
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 Judge Gold described to the jury, what lies ahead for this country as ‘Armageddon’. The CPS says it will waste more resources trying them again in May 2024.[3]
On 2nd June, the second group of nine Insulate Britain defendants on trial for blocking the road at Dover Port in 2021 were found guilty by a majority verdict. They were sentenced on 14th of June when three were given suspended sentences. Each of the nine was ordered to pay court costs ranging from £500 to £1,000 each, and required to do between 140 and 200 hours of community service, unpaid work. [4]
In the eighteen Insulate Britain jury trials for public nuisance charges to date, four trials have resulted in a hung jury, two trials have resulted in acquittals, nine 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.
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.indcatholicnews.com/news/47397
[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/