Power station protesters cleared

Power station protesters cleared

Six Greenpeace activists have been found not guilty of causing criminal damage during a protest in Kent.

The activists were charged with causing damage worth £30,000 after they scaled Kingsnorth power station in Hoo in a protest over a coal-fired power plant.

At Maidstone Crown Court Judge David Caddick said the jury had to examine whether protesters had a lawful excuse.

The defendants had claimed their actions were lawfully right by preventing further damaging emissions.

‘Gordon, bin it’

The jurors were sent out just before 1300 BST on Tuesday in the eight-day trial.

Five people who scaled the chimney – Huw Williams, 41, of Nottingham; Ben Stewart, 34, of Lyminge, Kent; Kevin Drake, 44, of Westbury, Wiltshire; Will Rose, 29, of London; and Emily Hall, 34, from New Zealand – were all charged with causing criminal damage.

Tim Hewke, 48, from Ulcombe, Kent, accused by the prosecution of organising the protest from the ground, also faced the same charge.

Jurors heard how protesters painted the name “Gordon” on the 200m (650ft) chimney on 8 October last year, in a political protest against the redevelopment of the plant as a coal-burning unit.

They had planned to daub the words “Gordon, bin it” on the stack in a reference to Prime Minister Gordon Brown, but were threatened with a High Court injunction and arrested

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This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation

Source: news.bbc.co.uk

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