Green light to anarchy: Eco-activists cleared of power station damage after using climate change as defence

The eco-campaigners admitted causing damage to the value of £30,000 when they climbed a chimney and began painting a slogan.

But a judge allowed them to base their 'lawful excuse' defence around their cause: the fear that the power station could contribute to climate change.

Greenpeace protesters (from left) Huw Williams, Kevin Drake, Ben Stewart, Tim Hewke, Emily Hall and Will Rose were cleared of damaging Kingsnorth power station after arguing they were trying to stop it causing further damage through global warming

A jury at Maidstone Crown Court agreed, meaning the activists walked free.

The power station's owners said Greenpeace had endangered lives, while Tory former minister Ann Widdecombe warned that the 'ludicrous' verdict gave a green light to protesters to damage property.

Miss Widdecombe, in whose constituency the power station is sited, drew a parallel with her own anti-abortion views. 

'This verdict strikes me as ludicrous,' she said.

'The law says that the power station can operate - therefore it's quite ridiculous to argue that you can cause criminal damage to it because you don't like it and say that justifies your actions.

'On that basis, I can go and damage any abortion clinic. Of course I'm not going to, but there's no stopping people once you allow that sort of defence.

'This decision will give a green light to other protesters, and I hope the attorney general does something about it.'

The incident took place at the Kingsnorth coal-fired power station in Kent last October, when the Greenpeace team scaled a 656ft tower and began painting the slogan 'Gordon, bin it' in a bid to persuade the Prime Minister to close the redeveloped facility.

They succeeded in shutting down the power station temporarily but only got as far as painting the word 'Gordon' before they were threatened with a High Court injunction and stopped their protest.

The activists included Greenpeace employees Ben Stewart, 34, of Lyminge, Kent, Emily Hall, 34, of London, and Tim Hewke, 48, from Ulcombe Kent, along with mountain rescue expert Huw Williams, 41, of Nottingham, climbing professional Kevin Drake, 44, from Westbury, Wiltshire, and photographer William Rose, 29, from London.

All admitted damaging the power station but argued that coal-fired plants are particularly harmful to the environment, and that they were acting lawfully to try to stop further damage to properties around the world being caused by global warming.

Their defence was allowed by judge David Caddick, who told the jury of three men and nine women that the case centred on whether the protesters did have a lawful excuse for their actions.

He said that for a 'lawful excuse' to be used it must be proved that the action was due to an immediate need to protect property belonging to another.

Prosecutor John Price insisted the protesters' actions were 'not capable of being lawful', and said the case was not a prosecution of free speech or legitimate political protest but a prosecution for crossing the line of acceptable protest.

Mr Price said: 'There are things you can lawfully do in making a protest but there's a line which has to be drawn.

'When the defendants caused damage to that chimney, it's the line that they crossed.'

But on Wednesday after listening to a string of defence witnesses - including Conservative leader David Cameron's environment adviser Zac Goldsmith - claim coal-fired power stations are a major cause of global warning, the jury acquitted the activists.

After walking free, Mr Stewart - who has two previous convictions for aggravated trespass in similar protests - said the jury's verdict showed that ordinary people agreed the world was threatened by global warming.

He agreed that other campaigners would be cheered by the success of the 'lawful excuse' defence, but was anxious to play down Miss Widdecombe's fear that the decision encouraged a wave of criminal damage.

A spokesman for the power station's owners E.ON said she was 'hugely disappointed' by the verdict.

Emily Highmore said: 'We respect people's right to protest, but that shouldn't be taking place at the top of a chimney stack.

'What Greenpeace did was hugely irresponsible - it put people's lives at risk and that is completely unacceptable.'