Bishop Hill Criminal records for Friends of the Earth, Sandbag
Dec 17, 2015 Greens ;)
Guy Shrubsole: convictYesterday, the green activists who disrupted the Banks Mining facility next to Matt Ridley's home in Northumberland were up in court on charges of aggravated trespass. I have received the following report.
1. Yesterdays court case went ahead as planned at Bedlington Magistrates Court.
2. The nine charged protesters all appeared in court. They brought along a barrister from Manchester.
3. They appeared rather 'sheepish' in court.
4. The barrister argued mitigating circumstances on the basis of that it was a legitimate protest and that the protesters were frustrated by the lack of UK Government action to combat climate change. The judge (a district judge) apparently didn’t think much of this and suggested that it was not appropriate for matters of national politics to be argued by way of illegal obstruction of legitimate coal mining operations in Northumberland.
5. Eight pleaded guilty and received:
They were bound by a court order not to go within 50m of a Banks site.
- a criminal conviction for aggravated trespass
- a fine of approx. £1,000 each made up of £150 court costs, £850 towards Banks losses and some other smaller bits.
- a 12-month conditional discharge
6. One pleaded not guilty. Thought to be the “legal observer” that was with the three protesters down in the mine. He is apparently going to try to argue that he did not disrupt mining activities in any way. He is still on police bail and due to appear in court again for a trial in March 2016.
The names are:
- Roger Geffen, 49, of Southwark Bridge Road, London.
- Ellen Gibson, 21, of Elm Grove, London;
- Philip MacDonald, 28, of Blackstock Road, Finsbury Park, London;
- Beth Louise Parkin, 29, of Dodgson House, Bidborough Street, London;
- Pekka Piirainen, 23, of Elm Grove, London;
- Thomas Youngman, 22, of Hermitage Road, London.
- Laurence Watson, 27, of Blackstock Road, Finsbury Park, London;
- Guy Shrubsole, 30, of Bavent Road, London; and Lewis McNeill, 34, of no fixed address.
Guy Shrubsole is a full time employee of Friends of the Earth.
Laurence Watson and Philip MacDonald are full-time employees of Bryony Worthington's Sandbag organisation.
Roger Geffen, as noted previously, is an MBE and a full-time employee of a cycling campaign group.
Reader Comments (107)
"They were bound by a court order not to go within 50m of a Banks site."
Shame that doesn't include web-sites...
BBC radio now running sob-story about closing of coal mine, sympathetic interviews with miners etc.
Do they have no shame? No sense of irony?
I dare say that in some parts of the world coal miners/experts will be needed .
I wonder if they'll be some documentaries about British mining and coal power station experts going abroad where the industries are expanding and staff are needed ..Germany, India , Malaysia, Africa etc.
Or maybe staying in the UK and working in the shale gas industry that the BBC has campaigned so shamelessly and relentlessly against.
And where was the BBC's mandatory interview with the random irrelevant Greenie cock-a-hoop that a coal mine had been closed? But it wouldn't suit them to remind people of the non-stop propaganda the BBC has been running against "fossil fuels".
@kellydown @1:23
categorically no
I caught a bit of R4 news this afternoon - the line "the miners came up from their last shift in cages" seemed to be delivered with some relish.
It's distasteful that @Justice4Rinka has published Geffen's address against after the mods previously removed it. Although anyone with Google can Geffen's address, such which-hunts and tricks are what the green activists commonly do, but not typical people here on BH.
I see their Crim-funding campaign was only half successful Their fimes are £10,000 but they only raised £5,183
Geffen is due to appear in court again for a trial in March 2016.
I expect the Heathrow activists sentences to come in soon, February 24th
Addresses removed again.