After obstructing M4 traffic, a climate change demonstrator was given a five-week prison sentence.
For his participation in an Insulate Britain demonstration in 2021, Stephen Pritchard, 63, received a sentence at Inner London Crown Court.
He blocked traffic at Junction 3 of the M4 on October 1, 2021, together with three other people. A jury found him guilty of producing a public nuisance.
Almost 10,000 passengers were inconvenienced as a result of the demonstration, which saw some protesters glue themselves to the asphalt on a route near Heathrow Airport in west London.
Pritchard’s co-defendants – former probation officer Ruth Cook, 71, gardener Roman Paluch-Machnik, 29, and carpenter Oliver Rock, 42 – were each given six-week sentences suspended for 18 months on the proviso they do not offend again.
The three protestors were also ordered to complete 100 hours of community service.
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Judge Silas Reid said Pritchard, a former parish councillor from Bath, was jailed because he told the court he would not stop taking part in disruptive protests as a matter of “conscience”.
The judge told Pritchard: “It is not appropriate for me to suspend the inevitable sentence… you will serve up to half of your sentence in prison.”
The other three defendants said they were deterred from future protests by their experiences in court and prison.
Speaking to all four defendants, Judge Reid said: “None of you have shown any remorse for your actions and in fact wear them with pride.”
He said they had shown a “level of planning and sophistication” through the fact they had “been to the scene the day before on a scouting mission”.
Judge Reid said there was no evidence emergency vehicles were delayed by the protest but added there was still a risk they could have been “caught up in other congestion around the road”.
“There was significant harm caused in this case. Well over 10,000 people were significantly negatively impacted by your actions,” he said.
“People would have lost earnings, missed appointments and potentially missed flights.
“This was a carefully planned sophisticated operation… each of you have high culpability for this deliberately criminal action.”
Judge Reid said the protesters’ sentence was reduced from around 12 months’ imprisonment because they were bringing attention to the climate crisis.
Insulate Britain said the protestors are the first to be convicted of causing a public nuisance – a common law offence which carries a maximum penalty of lifetime imprisonment.
Story adapted from Sky News
