Extinction Rebellion: Co-founder Gail Bradbrook handed suspended sentence for breaking £27k government window

One of the founders of climate activist group Extinction Rebellion has avoided jailtime for breaking a £27,500 government window at an HS2 protest, and will likely serve all of her sentence in the community.

Dr Gail Bradbrook was last month convicted of criminal damage after a trial in Isleworth Crown Court, after years of delays - including an aborted trial in July. The activist had broken the window at the UK’s Department for Transport offices in London in October 2019 - in what the climate group described as "a rebellion against the government’s failure to take adequate and appropriate action on the climate and nature emergencies".

On Monday (18 December), Dr Bradbrook reappeared for sentencing, where she was sentenced to one year and three months in jail, suspended for 15 months. She was also told to carry out 150 hours of voluntary work, to be completed over 12 months.

NationalWorld's sister publication LondonWorld reports Judge Martin Edmunds KC described Bradbrook's claim, that her motive was to draw attention to the protest matter, as "absurd". "At least one journalist had been notified of the proposed action in advance and it was clearly your intention was to commit a crime sufficient to attract publicity," he said. “You said that you were surprised that the repair cost so much and that you assumed it would be paid for by insurance. I am sure the reality is that you did not care about how much it would cost as long as it achieved the publicity you sought.”

A number of supporters gathered outside the courthouse during the sentencing, including Game of Thrones actor Jerome Flynn. He told LondonWorld: "There’s a crime at the heart of this case this morning and it's not Gail smashing a window. It's the plan that HS2 was, and still is in part, which is a crime against nature and our children’s futures.”

In a statement released after she was initially found guilty, Dr Bradbrook said she was "at peace" with the verdict. "Even if I did what I did to protect my own children, that was no defence in law," she continued.

"What does it tell us that there is no accountability for those causing damage on a national and planetary scale, the oil bosses and financiers, and those responsible for the billion-pound fraud on the British public that is HS2, but that a mother taking action to protect her children - according to the scientific evidence - is treated as a criminal."

While Bradbrook had pleaded not guilty to the charge of criminal damage - in an unusual move, she admitted to breaking the window before her trial. However, Bradbrook initially argued that she did it as an act of conscientious protection – a concept not yet recognised in UK law.