Four Insulate Britain supporters 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]
Richard Ramsden, Simon Reding, Catherine Rennie-Nash and Anthony Whitehouse were on trial charged with causing a public nuisance for stopping traffic at the Port of Dover on 24th September 2021. Two other defendants, Joshua Smith and Stephanie Aylett, originally scheduled to appear before Judge Gold this week, were severed from this trial after their barrister was unexpectedly called away. They will join another Dover trial group in May 2024. [2]
At the beginning of the trial on 19th July, the defendants tried to challenge the biassed jury selection process which rules out anyone with a connection to a wide range of climate protest groups including Insulate Britain, Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil, but not people with a connection to the oil industry. Judge Gold declined to change the process.
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 speak about their motivations for taking action, and to mention fuel poverty, carbon emissions and the climate crisis in court, even though Judge Gold restricted the time for giving evidence to 30 minutes. However, they were barred from discussing civil resistance as an effective tactic, or quoting prominent figures like UN Secretary-General Antonio Guteres or George Monbiot who have offered vocal support for this campaigning method. In summing up the judge directed that jurors must ignore all such matters and only follow his strict route to a verdict based on whether the disruption caused was significant and whether the defendents had acted together to cause it.
After deliberating for under two hours the jury returned a verdict of guilty. At sentencing today, the judge awarded each defendant an 18-month community order with 140 hours of community service to be completed within 12 months and £3,000 costs payable within six months irrespective of personal circumstance. This is among the highest criminal court costs that have been awarded for actions taken during the Insulate Britain campaign.
Catherine Rennie-Nash, 73, a retired teacher and grandparent from Kendal, Cumbria said
“Trial by jury is such an important principle but it is under threat from Judges and lawmakers who think they should be the sole arbiters of guilt or innocence. We can’t allow this to happen. Without meaningful jury trials the government will be able to lock up anyone who disagrees with them. We have to be able to take action against a government that is leading us down a pathway to climate, ecological and social collapse. It’s terrifying.”
Anthony Whitehouse, 71, a grandfather from Dewsbury, West Yorkshire said:
“I’m disappointed that the jury has failed to recognise that society is at extreme risk of collapse and that the campaign that Insulate Britain undertook was to uphold the rule of law. Along with other Insulate Britain supporters I took action to protect life in the face of the government’s deadly inaction on the climate crisis.”
“I don’t for a second regret taking part in the campaign. It was the 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.
So far this year seven Insulate Britain supporters have been sent to prison for up to eight weeks for speaking the whole truth and being found in contempt of court or for vowing to continue in civil resistance. [3][4][5]
Last week a group of up to 20 people sat silently outside Isleworth Crown Court holding signs that said: “Jurors have an absolute right to acquit a defendant according to their conscience”. The show of resistance from the group (which includes Quakers, doctors, athletes, professors and a former government lawyer) came amid mounting concern jury trials are being increasingly politicised. After a series of acquittals have embarrassed ministers and politicians, measures have been taken by Judges and lawmakers to render the role of jurors substantially meaningless, while preserving the appearance of jury trial. [6]
Many of these measures have been applied by Judge Silas Reid at Inner London Crown Court in relation to Insulate Britain public nuisance trials. Amongst other things, he has banned defendants from explaining their motivations or the context for their actions to the jury, sent people to prison for using the terms “climate change” and “fuel poverty” in court and ordered the arrest and referred for prosecution those who remind jurors of their right to make decisions on their conscience. [7][8] [9]
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, ten 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]
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] https://insulatebritain.com/2021/09/24/insulate-britain-blocks-the-port-of-dover/
[3] David Nixon jailed: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/feb/07/insulate-britain-activist-david-nixon-jailed-for-eight-weeks-for-contempt-of-court
[4] Amy Pritchard and Giovanna Lewis jailed: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/activists-jailed-for-seven-weeks-for-defying-ban-on-mentioning-climate-crisis/
[5] Stephen Pritchard jailed: http://insulatebritain.com/2023/03/13/first-four-supporters-to-be-sentenced-for-public-nuisance-three-are-spared-jail-whilst-one-is-jailed/
[5] Reverend Mark Coleman and Catherine Rennie-Nash jailed: http://insulatebritain.com/2023/04/20/breaking-courts-prove-themselves-to-be-morally-bankrupt-as-five-people-are-jailed-in-one-week-for-vowing-to-continue-in-civil-resistance/
[5] Louise Lancaster jailed: http://insulatebritain.com/2023/06/30/breaking-another-insulate-britain-supporter-jailed-after-vowing-to-continue-in-civil-resistance-against-fuel-poverty-and-climate-collapse/
[6] https://twitter.com/InsulateLove/status/1680990089797664773?s=20
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