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]
Louise Lancaster, Nick Till, Stefania Morosi and Tim Speers were found guilty of causing a Public Nuisance after they blocked the M25 motorway at Junction 1A on the 15th September 2021 as part of the Insulate Britain Campaign. A campaign that was later called prescient by a number of commentators.[2] [3]
Rob Stewart, who was also charged, pleaded guilty on Monday and was given 100 hours community service, and ordered to pay court costs of £575.40.
Louise Lancaster, 58, a teacher from Cambridge said:
“I am proud to have been in nonviolent civil resistance with Insulate Britain to save lives, stop families choosing between heating and eating and strive for a livable future for all. The state ensured that our defences in law were ruled out, I call on the legal profession to push back against criminalising those sounding the alarm in this crisis.”
Stefania Morosi, 46, a mother of two and yoga teacher from London said:
“In this exact juncture in history we cannot be sure whether it will be a guilty or a non guilty verdict that will have a wider impact. The injustice of being denied any legal defence should be exposed, shouted out loud, and with every guilty verdict this injustice is there for people to see, get outraged and act. “
Nicholas John Till, 68, a Professor at the Universities of Sussex and Amsterdam, from London said:
“The carbon state had brought all its might to silence and crush those of us who undertook a non-violent act of civil resistance to raise the alarm about the climate emergency. We knew the penalties we faced, but there are times when breaking the law is the only moral thing to do. We all respect the need for law and order, but there will be no law and order when climate breakdown leads to societal collapse. Ultimately, we acted in defence of law and order, not against it.”
There is still a need to insulate Britain’s leaky housing stock. With millions of families now living in penury due to their dependency on fossil fuels which have seen huge price increases since the 2021 campaign.
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. [4]
At the start of the trial on Monday, people from the group Defend our Juries sat silently outside the court holding signs that say: “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) comes 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. [5][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.
In the 20 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, with 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.
The case was heard by HHJ Henson KC.
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/2021/09/15/why-is-an-82-year-old-stepping-out-onto-the-road/
[4] David Nixon jailed: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/feb/07/insulate-britain-activist-david-nixon-jailed-for-eight-weeks-for-contempt-of-court
Amy Pritchard and Giovanna Lewis jailed: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/activists-jailed-for-seven-weeks-for-defying-ban-on-mentioning-climate-crisis/
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/
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/
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/
[5] https://twitter.com/InsulateLove/status/1680990089797664773?s=20