An Oxfordshire man is one of five Just Stop Oil activists have lost Court of Appeal challenges against their convictions over a track invasion which disrupted the 2022 British Grand Prix.
The five were found guilty of risking “serious harm” to drivers and race marshals during the protest action.
David Baldwin, 49,of Stonesfield, Oxfordshire, was handed 12-month community order by Mr Justice Garnham in March last year.
Two others were given suspended prison sentences, and the other two received community orders.
Jurors at Northampton Crown Court convicted the group in February 2023 after being shown footage of some sitting on and being dragged off the circuit at Silverstone as two Formula One cars passed close by.
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On Friday (September 13) Lord Justice Holroyde, who considered the cases alongside Mr Justice Griffiths and Judge Nicholas Dean, dismissed all the appeals.
Lord Justice Holroyde said: “Given the strength of the prosecution case, taking into account only the risk to drivers, marshals and others who might assist the marshals, we are satisfied that the terms in which the judge directed the jury do not render the convictions unsafe.”
The activists all denied causing a public nuisance at the July 2022 race in Northamptonshire, claiming the protest had followed a “meticulous” safety plan.
Emily Brocklebank, 27, of Yeadon in Leeds; Alasdair Gibson, 23, from Aberdeen; Louis McKechnie, 23, from Manchester; and Joshua Smith, 31, from Lees in Oldham, went on to the race circuit during the protest.
Baldwin was found in a car park along with glue, cable ties and a Just Stop Oil banner and was said by prosecutors to have been “in it together” with his co-defendants.
His barrister Rabah Kherbane argued that he did not assist or encourage the other activists in getting on to the track.
Baldwin, who was pulled back by a race marshal, had his bid to appeal against his conviction on the grounds that there was insufficient evidence to establish secondary liability rejected by judges.
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They said it appeared like a “cynical attempt … to rely on the speed of a marshal’s response – itself an indication of the high degree of risk created by persons trespassing onto the prohibited area when cars were moving round the track – to distance himself from the conduct of his co-accused who managed to clear the fences”.
At the trial, jurors were shown personal video statements from the defendants recorded a day before the protest, including a claim that the world is “being destroyed for the benefit of a few people”.
The court was told that the protest action was designed to draw media attention to Just Stop Oil’s call for the Government to halt new fossil fuel extraction licences.
Bethany Mogie, from St Albans, aged 40 when convicted alongside the other protesters, withdrew her appeal before Wednesday’s hearing.
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