Just Stop Oil activists sentenced over Heathrow runway glue plot

Just Stop Oil (JSO) activists who plotted to glue themselves to a runway at Heathrow Airport have been spared jail terms.

Following a trial, the nine campaigners were convicted of conspiracy to cause a public nuisance after police stopped them from causing “unprecedented disruption” at the west London airport on 24 July.

The defendants had either already served the time they were sentenced to or they were handed suspended sentences.

Earlier at Isleworth Crown Court, Judge Hannah Duncan said the defendants had not breached the perimeter fence and they caused no disruption or “actual harm” but added they had shown “no remorse”.

Video footage filmed at Heathrow and shared on JSO’s X feed appeared to show people cycling near a high barbed wire-topped fence close to passenger planes before dismounting and being approached by officers.

Following the incident, activists Sally Davidson, 37, of Portland, Adam Beard, 55, of Stroud, Luke Elson, 32, of Stratford, east London, Luke Watson, 35, of Tottenham Marshes, Sean O’Callaghan, 30 of Dorking, Hannah Schafer, 61, of Ceredigion, Rory Wilson, 26, of Limehouse, and organisers Rosa Hicks, 29, of Winchester, and William Goldring, 27, of Rye Lane in Peckham were arrested and charged.

Judge Duncan told the defendants they treated their trial as an “extension of the protest”, adding: “A court room is not a street or a town square, and it is run at considerable cost.

“It’s where allegations of crimes are tried, where often the most vulnerable people in society find themselves as defendants or as witnesses.

“There are women and children who have been abused, sexually assaulted or raped who are waiting for court rooms.

“You used one for seven weeks. Some of you dragging it out as much as you could at every opportunity, lying about your actions and intentions that day all to get more publicity.

“It does not add a single day to your sentence but it demonstrates your lack of remorse until now and it exposes the lie of accountability.”