Five Just Stop Oil protesters, including co-founder, jailed for combined 21 years for M25 blockade conspiracy

The sentences are believed to be the longest ever given for peaceful protest. Roger Hallam, 58, Daniel Shaw, 38, Louise Lancaster, 58, Lucia Whittaker De Abreu, 35, and Cressida Gethin, 22, were convicted of intentionally causing a public nuisance by having protesters climb onto gantries over the motorway for four consecutive days in November 2022.

Roger Hallam, co-founder of Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion, was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment, while the other four defendants received four years each. These sentences surpass those given to fellow Just Stop Oil protesters Morgan Trowland and Marcus Decker, who were sentenced for scaling the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge on the Dartford Crossing in October 2022.

The Court of Appeal had previously noted that Trowland, who received a three-year sentence, and Decker, who was jailed for two years and seven months, held the record for the longest terms for a peaceful protest in modern times. Prosecutors stated that the M25 protests, involving 45 people climbing up the gantries, resulted in an economic cost of at least £765,000 and over £1.1 million in costs to the Metropolitan Police.

The protests caused more than 50,000 hours of vehicle delays, affecting over 700,000 vehicles, and left the M25 “compromised” for over 120 hours. Additionally, a police officer suffered concussion and bruising after being knocked off his motorbike in traffic caused by one of the protests on November 9, 2022, according to prosecutor Jocelyn Ledward KC.

The five defendants joined a Zoom call on November 2, 2022, to discuss the planned protests and recruit others. A journalist from The Sun, posing as an interested party, recorded the call and provided the recordings to the police. Judge Christopher Hehir remarked that the Zoom call demonstrated “how intricately planned the disruption was and the sophistication involved”, serving as “compelling evidence” of a conspiracy.

Ledward said the “extensive organisation and planning” behind the protests, with each defendant playing a “significant role” in the conspiracy.

The defendants were convicted by a jury of conspiracy to intentionally cause a public nuisance, contrary to section 78 of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 and Section 1 of the Criminal Law Act 1977, on July 11. Dubbed the Whole Truth Five by Just Stop Oil on social media, the defendants confirmed their names in court and shouted “We love you” from the dock after the sentences were announced.

Judge Hehir criticised the defendants, stating: “The plain fact is that each of you some time ago has crossed the line from concerned campaigner to fanatic. You have appointed yourselves as sole arbiters of what should be done about climate change.” Addressing Hallam, he added, “You are the theoretician, the ‘ideas’ man. In my judgment you sit at the very highest level of the conspiracy.”

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During the trial on July 2, 11 protesters were arrested on suspicion of contempt outside the court, but proceedings against them were discontinued on July 11. There have been no protests on the M25 since November 2022.