JSO protester facing jail for M25 protest says she'd do it again

A Just Stop Oil protester who delayed 4,000 plane passengers by scaling a gantry above the M25 near Heathrow has said she ‘would do it all again’.

Cressida Gethin, 22, was convicted of causing a public nuisance for her part in the motorway protest that caused a nine-mile tailback on July 20, 2022, and could be jailed when she is sentenced next month.

The disruptive demonstration came one day after the UK saw a record high temperature of 40C and two days after the government’s Net-Zero Strategy was declared illegal.

Cressida Gethin, 22, was convicted of causing a public nuisance for her part in the motorway protest that caused a nine-mile tailback on July 20, 2022

Specialist police climbers preparing to remove a protester after they climbed an overhead motorway gantry on the M25 causing both carriageways to be closed by police

Gethin and a fellow Just Stop Oil protester on the M25 motorway gantry in July 2022

The Cambridge University music student – who has taken two years out of her studies to focus on climate activism – admits having ‘mixed feelings’ about her actions and would like to meet the people who were impacted by them.

In an interview with environmentalist Chris Packham for the Radio Times, Gethin said: ‘I would [do it all again], but there’s one thing I’d do additionally – and I’m still considering it.

‘I’d find some way of meeting with anyone who had been affected by what I did, so they could tell me how they felt.’

The music student added: ‘Sitting up there, surrounded by six lanes of empty motorway, I recall thinking that if the aim of the action was to get media attention we’d succeeded.

‘But at the same time, the very real moral dilemma of knowing that people would be stuck in their cars and missing important events – I heard one person missed their parent’s funeral, which I would never want – doesn’t sit easy with me.’

During her trial Grethin said she aimed to ‘interrupt business as usual’ and draw media attention to the ‘dire situation’ represented by the temperature in Britain.

She also told the court that she did not realise she was so close to Heathrow and did not choose the location.

Mr Packham (pictured with Gethin), 62, was stuck in the traffic caused by the protest for four to five hours during a trip from Hampshire to Surrey, where he was working on a BBC show

In her closing statement, Gethin told the jury: ‘You must use your judgement as human beings, who are aware of the context in which this action was taken – the deadly 40C heatwave, thousands of people dying of heatstroke.

‘If your house had just burnt down, would four hours in traffic feel serious in comparison?

‘If you were a climate refugee, forced out of your home country by heat, drought and social conflict, would missing a flight feel serious in comparison?

READ MORE: Cambridge University student Just Stop Oil protester delayed 4,000 plane passengers by scaling a gantry above the M25 near Heathrow, court hears

‘In a vacuum, you could reasonably assume that someone stuck in a four hour traffic jam would be feeling very annoyed.

‘But we are not in a vacuum – no one here can disagree that the climate crisis we’re in is dire; billions of refugees, starvation, mass suffering and death – this is coming to us all.

‘There may well have been more people in the traffic jams who felt like Chris Packham – we heard from Mr Packham that he did not feel seriously annoyed when stuck in the traffic.’

Mr Packham, 62, was stuck in the traffic caused by the protest for four to five hours during a trip from Hampshire to Surrey, where he was working on a BBC show.

Giving evidence in defence of Gethin during her trial, the broadcaster told jurors he came to ‘sympathise’ with the fact he needed to be put in a position where he was ‘forced to think about the gravity of the situation’ around climate change.

Gethin’s father Nick – who was a member of Musicians Against Nuclear Arms as a young man – said that he would not have tried to stop her had he known about the plans.

However, he did raise concerns of his daughter potentially putting herself in ‘real physical danger’ by meeting the people impacted by her protest.

He said: ‘You’ve seen the level of hatred and abuse you get just sitting in the middle of the road.’

Read more