Doncaster Just Stop Oil protester appears in court over London road blockade
A Doncaster Just Stop Oil protester has appeared in court and has been convicted of blocking roads during a demonstration in London.
Doncaster’s Greg Sculthorpe, 38, a prominent member of the campaign group, was found guilty along with Ben Plumpton, 70, Naomi Goddard, 60, both of Hebden Bridge and Kate Bramfitt, 52, of Hexham, Northumberland, after a trial at Stratford Magistrates’ Court of wilfully obstructing a highway.
They were among 80 people who took part in the peaceful protest on November 6 last year which went past the Cenotaph in Whitehall towards Parliament Square and caused major disruption.
Queues of traffic built up as they began slow marching in the road for about 25 minutes, taking up two lanes but enabling cyclists to pass.
They were each given a conditional discharge for nine months, and ordered to pay a £26 victim surcharge and £310 costs – except Bramfitt, whose costs were reduced to £200 after she described herself as “economically inactive” and not receiving benefits.