AN OXFORD activist who chained herself to a plane at Stansted Airport has been handed a community order.

May MacKeith, 33, who grew up in Botley, was among 15 defendants dubbed the 'Stansted 15' who were sentenced at Chelmsford Crown Court today.

The group cut through the airport's perimeter fence and locked themselves together around a Boeing 767 jet, in March 2017, which had been chartered by the Home Office to deport people from UK detention centres to Africa.

Each defendant denied the single charge against them but they were all found guilty following an earlier two-month trial.

READ AGAIN: Oxford activist found guilty after stopping deportations flight 

MacKeith was among 12 defendants who were sentenced to 12-month community orders, while the other three were given suspended prison sentences.

Those handed a community order were also sentenced to 100 hours of unpaid work, except MacKeith who was spared unpaid work and instead told to complete 20 days of rehabilitation due to ill health.

MacKeith was born and brought up in Oxford but her current address is in Leytonstone, East London. 

In a letter sent to the Oxford Mail in December, her parents Bill and Angela MacKeith said Oxford 'can feel proud' of their daughter's actions.

READ AGAIN: Parents of Stansted 15 activist, May MacKeith, speak out

The offence all defendants were convicted of is the intentional disruption of services at an aerodrome, contrary to section 1 (2) (b) of the Aviation and Maritime Security Act 1990.

Lawyers for the activists said this law was passed in response to the 1988 Lockerbie bombing.

Judge Christopher Morgan, sentencing today, told the defendants: "In normal circumstances only a normal custodial sentence would have been justified in this case, but in your case I accept that your intentions were to demonstrate."

He added: "You took objects onto that airport...[and] had no way of knowing if all had been recovered.

"Leaving of foreign object debris on a runway can have catastrophic effects."

Hundreds of people turned out to a demonstration ahead of the court hearing, with a police road closure in place as crowds sang, clapped and held banners.

The defendants' actions caused the runway to be closed for one hour and 20 minutes, meaning 19 inbound flights had to be diverted to other airports.

Judge Morgan said the incident resulted in a loss of more than £1 million to parties who were not specified in court.

Dexter Dias QC, mitigating, said the defendants feared for the safety of some of those on the deportation flight, adding: "These defendants acted out of conscience."

Two people who were set to be deported have since had their cases reconsidered by the Home Office and have been allowed to stay, he added.

The defendants, aged between 27 and 44, are appealing against their conviction.

They are: Helen Brewer, 29; Lyndsay Burtonshaw, 28; Nathan Clack, 30; Laura Clayson, 28; Melanie Evans, 35; Joseph McGahan, 35; Benjamin Smoke, 27; Jyotsna Ram, 33; Nicholas Sigsworth, 29; Melanie Strickland, 35; Alistair Tamlit, 30; Edward Thacker, 29; Emma Hughes, 38; May McKeith, 33 and 44-year-old Ruth Potts.

Thacker, Strickland and Tamlit, who were previously convicted in 2016 of aggravated trespass over a climate change protest at Heathrow Airport in 2015, were given sentences of nine months in prison suspended for 18 months.

Thacker and Tamlit were ordered to complete 250 hours of unpaid work, and Strickland 100 hours of unpaid work.