Climate protestors have their sentences reduced after appeals

Protestors from Just Stop Oil have had their sentences reduced after blocking the M25.

Transcript

00:00We then turned to the sentences in each individual case and we considered the specific facts of each appellant's case.

00:09We have decided as follows.

00:13The sentences imposed in the M25 conspiracy case were quashed and the following sentences substituted.

00:22Roger Hallam, four years' imprisonment.

00:26Daniel Shaw, three years' imprisonment.

00:29Lucia Whittaker-Diabro, 30 months' imprisonment.

00:33Louise Lancaster, three years' imprisonment.

00:37President Geffin, 30-3-0 months' imprisonment.

00:42In the M25 gantry climbers case, the sentence imposed on Gaye de Lappe was quashed and a sentence of 18 months' imprisonment substituted.

00:55The appeals by Paul Sussek, Theresa Higginson, Paul Bell and George Simonson were dismissed.

01:04In the Thurrock Tunnels case, the appeals by Chris Bennett, Dr Larch Maxey, Samuel Johnson and Joe Howlett were dismissed.

01:14And in the Sunflowers case, the appeals by Phoebe Plummer and Anna Holland were dismissed.

01:21Roger Hallam, who is the co-founder of Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion,

01:27along with Daniel Shaw, Louise Lancaster, Lucia Whittaker-Diabro and Cressida Geffin were the protesters to have their sentences reduced.

01:38Last week here at the Court of Appeals, Hallam was jailed for five years for agreeing to disrupt traffic

01:44by having protesters climb onto the gantries over the M25 for four successive days,

01:51with the other protesters sentenced for climbing onto the gantries over the motorway.

01:56And throwing soup over Vincent van Gogh's sunflowers.

02:02The group challenged their sentences at the Court of Appeals in January,

02:08with their lawyers claiming the jail terms were manifestly excessive and failed to consider the protesters' conscientious motivation.

02:20Roger Hallam's sentence was reduced to four years, while Shaw and Lancaster's sentences were reduced to three years

02:30to quote-unquote maintain the differential between them.

02:35And Whittaker-Diabro and Geffin's sentences were lowered to 30 months.

02:41In their 44-page ruling, the judges said that Whittaker-Diabro's sentence was indeed manifestly excessive,

02:50while Geffin, who was aged 20 at the time of her offence, was less culpable due to her immaturity.