Manchester Airport climate change protesters guilty
23.02.11
A judge has rejected claims by environmental activists that law-breaking could be justified by the need to fight climate change. District Judge Jonathan Taaffee found six protesters guilty of aggravated trespass after they broke into Manchester Airport in May last year and formed a ‘human circle’ around a holiday jet waiting to take off.
The members of Plane Stupid chained themselves together to the nose wheel of a Monarch Airlines plane waiting to take off for Egypt, shutting the airport for half an hour and forcing six landing flights to divert to other airports. They accepted that their actions had increased emissions.
During the two-day trial at Trafford magistrates’ court, the defendants claimed they were acting out of ‘necessity’ to prevent the devastating effects of climate change. But Judge Taaffee rejected their arguments saying there was only a ‘remote’ connection between the effects of climate change and their break-in.
He said: ‘Their actions did not in any way prevent death and serious injury, in fact the actions in the short term seem to have added to the problem by adding to the emissions [from diverted planes]. In this case the connection, in my view, between the defendants’ actions and the risk of serious injury and death are remote.’ The judge also said ‘democratic and legal options’ were available to the protesters, but they chose not to use them.
Francis Barney, 27, of Acomb Street, Manchester; Jess Bradley, 22, of Moss Lane East, Manchester; David Cullen, 31, of Rockdove Avenue, Hulme; Iain Hilton, 32, of Ladybarn Lane, Fallowfield; Edward Watson, 21, of Desmoines Road, Manchester, were given a two-year conditional discharge and ordered to pay £310 each. Robin Gillett, 24, of Ladybarn Lane, Fallowfield, who had a previous condition for a similar protest, was ordered to do 80 hours of unpaid work and pay £310.
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