A Just Stop Oil supporter who sprayed King’s College Cambridge with orange paint in 2023 to demand an end to new fossil fuels was found guilty at Peterborough Magistrates Court on Thursday 13 February.
Just Stop Oil: a dab hand at redecoration
On 12 October 2023, Chiara Sarti – a PhD student at King’s College, Cambridge – used a fire extinguisher to spray orange paint over the iconic neo-gothic gatehouse of the college to demand an immediate end to new oil and gas licensing, a demand that has since been adopted as policy by the Labour Party government:
Today they appeared before a magistrate accused of criminal damage under £5,000 for their action on 12 October 2023. The cost of the damage caused by the action was put at £2,430.
In their defence Chiara said:
I have never tried to avoid accountability for my actions. I accept all consequences that come with that. In particular, I have a high respect for the rule of law and I’ve taken action from a place of conscientious objection. I do absolutely hold true that none of us should be above the law, whether it’s students, government officials or fossil fuel executives. Fundamentally it is a deep respect for the law which has led me to take action.
Pronouncing a guilty verdict the judge said:
You’ve raised a number of things in your defence, in particular Articles 9 and 10. And I don’t think anyone will criticise the thoughts and beliefs you have. Article 10 doesn’t come without responsibilities.
The case law suggests there can be a defence of necessity – you raised the issues of the great fire of London – but of course the reasons those persons pulled down the houses was to save people from immediate danger because the fire would otherwise have spread. The case law I’m concerned with is the immediacy of the threat that may well be faced isn’t so immediate that it gives you a defence of lawful excuse.
Chiara was found guilty and given a 12-month conditional discharge and fined £3,080.
Righteous actions – given the overwhelming evidence
Speaking after the verdict Chiara said:
I have a responsibility to my generation to make it clear that burning oil means mass starvation. I refuse to lie to my students and pretend that this is OK. I do not consent to plans that will result in 3C of warming and mass death within a few decades.
Arrests, fines and prison don’t change this reality. When fossil fuel firms have bought our government, when politicians are prioritising corporate profits and the wealth of billionaires over the wellbeing of ordinary people, it’s time to put our bodies on the line and reclaim Parliament from the corporate interests that dominate it.
In the 16 months since Chiara took action, global heating has continued to accelerate and the world shows no signs of reducing fossil fuel burning.
Just last month, 2024 was confirmed as the warmest year on record and the first to exceed 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels for the annual global average temperature. Last week, January 2025 was confirmed as the hottest January on record at 1.75C above the pre-industrial level, according to European space agency Copernicus.
Bill McGuire, emeritus professor of geophysical and climate hazards at UCL, said the January data was “both astonishing and frankly terrifying”, adding:
On the basis of the Valencia floods and apocalyptic Los Angeles wildfires, I don’t think there can be any doubt that dangerous, all-pervasive, climate breakdown has arrived. Yet emissions continue to rise.
Back in November, the Global Carbon Project published its projection for 2024 fossil fuel use showing a rise of 0.8% over 2023. This would be almost 8% higher in 2024 than in 2015, the year the Paris climate agreement was signed.
Just Stop Oil will continue
The pace of global heating has been significantly underestimated, according to renowned climate scientist Prof James Hansen, who said:
The 2C target is dead, because the global energy use is rising, and it will continue to rise.
In 2024 Just Stop Oil successfully won its original demand of ‘no new oil and gas’. Now the courts agree that new oil and gas is unlawful. Just Stop Oil supporters are on the right side of history and non-violent civil resistance works.
Just Stop Oil will once again be stepping into action this April to demand that governments commit to an international treaty to phase out the extraction and burning of oil, gas and coal by 2030. You can help make this happen by coming to a talk and signing up for action at juststopoil.org
Featured image and additional images supplied
