FOUR INSULATE BRITAIN SUPPORTERS GUILTY OF PUBLIC NUISANCE
An Insulate Britain supporter from Greater Manchester was found guilty of causing a public nuisance by a Crown Court Jury yesterday in the sixth jury trial relating to Insulate Britain’s campaign of nonviolent civil resistance last year undertaken to demand the UK government insulates Britain’s cold and leaky homes.
Reverend Mark Coleman, 63, a retired vicar from Rochdale, was on trial with Daphne Jackson, 72, an Osteopath and psychotherapist from Sedbergh; Beatrice Pooley, 65, an English teacher from Kendal and Stephanie Aylett, 28, a medical sales rep from St Albans. They were declared guilty of causing a public nuisance in relation to the Insulate Britain roadblock at Bishopsgate in the City of London on 25th October 2021. One other trial relating to the same roadblock has already taken place in which the three defendants were acquitted.
After a 5-day hearing, the 11-person jury took one and a half hours to deliberate before returning a unanimous guilty verdict. The four will appear again for sentencing on March 24th and they have 28 days to appeal the conviction. The maximum penalty for the common law offence of public nuisance is life imprisonment.
The trial started with Judge Silas Reid ruling that the four defendants could not refer to their motivations for blocking the motorway in their defence. As with the earlier Insulate Britain jury trials, the defendants were each barred from referring to the climate crisis, insulation or fuel poverty during the trial. An additional restriction imposed in this trial compared with previous trials was on any mention of the 1960s civil rights activists, the Freedom Riders, on which Insulate Britain’s strategy was based.
Rev Mark Coleman said: “I sat on Bishopsgate in the City of London with many other supporters of Insulate Britain as an act of peaceful, non violent resistance to the murderous behaviour of our government. To leave people in cold, badly insulated homes, especially older and vulnerable people, is immoral and cruel”
“British people care for their neighbours, and do not usually walk by ‘on the other side’, ignoring the suffering of others. Our families, friends and neighbours are suffering. It does not have to be like this. Insulating Britain and stopping these reckless plans for new gas and oil wells are common sense first steps away from disaster. I call on Rishi Sunak to do his duty as a minister of the crown: to serve the people.”
In the five previous Insulate Britain jury trials for public nuisance charges, two trials so far have resulted in acquittals, one has resulted in a guilty verdict and two have been deferred. The first Insulate Britain jury trial was deferred until June 2023 after the Judge dismissed the jury and asked the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to consider whether proceeding with the trial was in the public interest.
The Crown Prosecution Service has chosen to summon a total of 56 supporters to answer at least 201 charges of Public Nuisance across at least 51 jury trials the last of which is scheduled to begin on 4th December 2023. These trials are planned to be heard across Inner London, Hove, Lewes and Reading Crown Courts and we estimate will take up around one thousand four hundred and twenty eight hours of court time.
