The team pleaded guilty to deliberately obstructing free passage after it disrupted the journey of some 18,000 drivers sitting in Junction 3 of the M25 on September 29th. Ian Bates, 63, Karen Matthews, 60, and Biff Whipster, 54, were told by Judge Stephen Leake at Crawley Magistrates’ Court that they were “inspiring” him after talking about their climate concerns while represented in court. The judge said: “I heard your voices. “I have been inspired and I personally intend to do what I can to reduce my impact on the planet, so at that point your voices are definitely heard. “These are difficult cases for us judges because we have to apply the law and we have sworn in our judicial oaths to do that.” Image: An “Isolate Britain” protester is dragged away by police after he took off from the street in front of Parliament in Westminster, London in November. Photo: AP “I live in a crazy world” The protesters had claimed that they had resorted to “non-violent protest” after exhausting all other means to emphasize their case. Many cried and held their faces in their hands as they listened to their fellow activists talk about the “desperate” situation facing the planet. Bates said: “I live in a crazy world. “I walk and people are completely unaware of it, they are immune to it … We continue as if we were just doing our job. “We are not doing our job, we are killing everyone.” He added: “The last thing I have left is to exercise my right to protest peacefully and for this protest to bring to the attention of the British public the desperate situation in which we find ourselves.” Read more: Insulate Britain admits roadblock protests ‘fail’, but warns new tactics will be ‘more ambitious’ The judge said the protesters “had no doubt” that they were acting in a way that they believed was “morally correct”, but that they had still committed a criminal offense. Bates, of Northampton, was fined 200 200, as were Lucy Crawford, 52, of Cambridge, and Bethany Mogie, 39, of Hertfordshire. 21-year-old Xavier Gonzalez-Trimmer, based in London, who had previously been convicted of similar protest-related offenses, was fined 6 266. Whipster, from Canterbury, pleaded guilty to felony criminal mischief for leaving a “hard, crusty layer of glue” on the window of a police vehicle while clinging to it. He was fined λι 120, as the judge took into account his financial situation. May Adams, 68, of Greenwich, was fined 250 250 after a judge ruled her refusal to leave an ambulance path as a “serious” aggravating factor. Margurite Doubleday, 67, of Gloucestershire, was fined 150 150. Five others – Tim Speers, Daniell Thomas, Peter Morgan, Louise Lancaster and Iain Webb – did not appear in court and were convicted of deliberately obstructing their trial in absentia. Thomas and Speers were fined 200 200, while Morgan, who had previously been convicted of similar protest-related offenses, was fined 400 400. Lancaster was fined 30 330 and Webb 300 300. Two defendants, 28-year-old Gabriella Ditton from Norwich and 74-year-old Barry Mitchell from Telford, have each pleaded not guilty to deliberate obstruction and will appear in Horsham Magistrates’ Court on May 11. Three others, Victoria Lindsell and Michelle Charlesworth, each charged with one count of intentional obstruction, and Louis McKechnie, charged with felony criminal mischief, were adjourned to Crawley Magistrates’ Court on April 28.
