A hung jury in the latest Just Stop Oil trial shows the nonsense of these prosecutions

Two Just Stop Oil supporters who sprayed Heathrow departure boards with orange paint during the Oil Kills, international uprising to end fossil fuels last July have won a temporary reprieve as their jury failed to reach a majority decision.

Just Stop Oil: legal shenanigans

Phoebe Plummer and Jane Touil were appearing before judge Duncan at Isleworth Crown Court accused of criminal damage over £5,000 for their action on 30 July 2024 to demand a fossil fuel treaty to end oil and gas by 2030.

The trial, which lasted nine days, ended when the jury failed to reach a majority decision.

The judge has scheduled a retrial for May 2026.

Phoebe was remanded for 58 days and Jane for 14 days following the action in which the pair used fire extinguishers to spray water-based paint at the departure boards in the terminal. The Crown alleged that the Just Stop Oil action caused £8,000 worth of damages.

Phoebe is currently serving a two year prison sentence for criminal damage for throwing soup on a Van Gogh painting in October 2022. They were sentenced by Judge Hehir at South Crown Court on 27 September 2024, a sentence that is now being challenged in an appeal scheduled for 29-30 January 2025.

During the trial, Judge Duncan ruled out the defence of necessity, saying this did not extend to civil disobedience and what she called the Just Stop Oil defendants’ “honestly held opinions” about climate change.

Jane Touil responded that:

It is not accurate to say that I am acting on my beliefs. It [the climate crisis] is not ‘a cause’. This is physics, an objective reality. I can see that everything is at risk. We only do the right thing if we know what’s going on.

Phoebe was not allowed to be present in court to make their closing speech as during the course of the trial, the heating system in the holding cells at Isleworth Crown court, contracted to the private company Serco broke down and no one currently in custody could be produced in court.

‘Following the law and doing the right thing are not the same thing’

A Just Stop Oil supporter who was present throughout the trial said that:

Phoebe and Jane had all their substantial defences removed, a severely mismanaged prosecution, logistical nightmares and a jury that was told to completely disregard their motivations. This is absolutely huge!

In her closing speech Phoebe Plummer said:

I have struggled with not being able to talk about the climate crisis – hearing it being called irrelevant feels inhumane and dishonest. The prosecution says I’m ‘committed to breaking the law’; my only commitment is to act in line with my conscience.

They say ‘I do what I like without thinking about the law’. I don’t think following the law and doing the right thing are always the same thing.

I cannot be a bystander to suffering where I see it. Nonviolence means being honest and living in line with the truth. I need to tell the truth about what I see. I act in a way that I think will be effective in saving life. When a doctor breaks a rib while doing CPR the doctor’s intent is still obviously saving life not causing grievous bodily harm, the context always matters.

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