Retired GP Diana Warner has been sentenced today in Leeds Crown Court to a two year conditional discharge and required to pay £4,380 in court costs after being found guilty of obstruction of a railway line that carries trees to be burned at Drax, the UK’s single biggest carbon emitter.
Drax: burning the planet but it’s activists at fault
On Wednesday 26 February, a jury guided by a corporate servile judge handed climate protester and retired GP Diana Warner a guilty verdict. It was over an action in December 2021. Warner obstructed a railway line that carries trees destined to be burned by Drax’s Selby power plant in Yorkshire.
As the biggest burner of woody biomass worldwide, its the UK’s single largest carbon polluter, and then some. In 2023 for instance, the planet-wrecking wood pellet plant pumped out 11.5m tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions. It meant that Drax’s Selby power station put out the equivalent of nearly 3% of the UK’s territorial emissions.
At Leeds Crown Court, Judge Kearl instructed the 12-person jury to ignore their consciences in the case. Notably, the judge told the jury that:
You have all taken an oath or affirmation to try this case on the evidence not your conscience
He directed them to try Warner solely on the basis of whether she a) trespassed on Network Rail’s land, and b) caused an obstruction. Despite this, the jury still raised the concern over conscience, before ultimately finding Warner guilty.
The jury queried Judge Kearl over their moral concerns, raising the question:
As a matter of conscience we are finding it difficult to come to a verdict. What should we do?
Of course, it isn’t the first case where a judge has tried to silence the jury’s right to acquit defendants. Notorious judges Christopher Hehir and Silas Reid – who have repeatedly handed out guilty verdicts to protesters – have been a leading example of judge hostility to juries ruling with their consciences.
Now, Diana has had her sentence passed down to her.
‘This doesn’t make sense to me’
Following the sentencing, in a statement outside the court Diana said:
I trespassed on network rail land and stopped a train heading to the Drax power station for thirty seconds to a minute. I was drawing attention to what most people now know; Drax power station adds to the mass death and destruction caused by climate change and pollution.
Today I have been given a two year conditional discharge. Drax power station is able to continue operating and at the same time it receives government subsidies. This doesn’t make sense to me.
Diana went on to say:
What happens when jurors are told that they must act against their conscience?
This is an attack on the very basis most of us live by – that human life and wellbeing are of utmost importance, and that the rights to life and health are respected in law.
This is the time, more than ever, we all need to hold firm to our conscience. We need to act according to our moral principles for the safety of our lives and the lives of our children.
In the three day trail the Jury heard how she took to the railway on 14 December 2021 to draw attention to the climate emergency and highlight the destructive practices of the controversial power station. The court heard that the train was disrupted for less than one minute.
Following Warner’s guilty verdict, on the 27 February Drax posted its full year results. Across its 2024 operations, the greenwashing giant raked in £1.06bn in profits.
Its gargantuan payouts also come the same month the Labour Party government has granted Drax £2bn in taxpayer subsidies. On Monday 10 February, the government extended this sum propping up the destructive industry from 2027 to 2031.
Featured image supplied
