Just Stop Oil activists target pop megastar Taylor Swift’s private jet, one of them a Swiftie superfan

Two Just Stop Oil activists stormed Stansted looking for Taylor Swift’s private jet yesterday – one of them a former civil servant who once called herself a superfan of the star.

Jennifer Kowalski, 28, and Cole Macdonald, 22, cut through a fence into the airport armed with fire extinguishers filled with orange paint before defacing two planes. But they couldn’t find Ms Swift’s jet in the VIP area of the Essex airfield.

The friends hugged after the attack and laughed as they said into camera: “We just spray-painted the f*** out of this private jet – and the one behind.”

They were arrested by police on suspicion of criminal damage and interference with the use or operation of national infrastructure.

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The Mail can reveal Ms Kowalski once considered Ms Swift her hero and won a competition to meet her.

The then biology student and her sister were among lucky fans greeted by Ms Swift backstage in Glasgow.

The pop megastar, who was in the midst of a world tour called 1989, looked thrilled as the Scottish siblings lifted her in the air after her sell-out show at the SSE Hydro Arena.

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The sisters were wearing Tay Tay-inspired dresses and had written ‘1989’ on their white trainers. In a Q&A for an environmental magazine Ms Kowalski was asked to tell readers something “interesting about you”, and replied: “In 2015, I was one of 15 people chosen, out of about 14,000, to meet the legend that is Taylor Swift backstage after her show in Glasgow.”

She said Ms Swift’s song Marjorie was an inspiration and the lyric, ‘Never be so polite, you forget your power; never wield such power, you forget to be polite’, was her favourite quote.

Ms Kowalski’s family would even throw parties when Ms Swift released new music and they saw her perform on a number of occasions in the UK. Ms Kowalski also shared a collage of her favourite pictures of the singer on Facebook while studying at the University of Aberdeen.

Most recently Ms Kowalski says she was employed by the Department for Work and Pensions as a sustainability manager – even though she was also a proud ‘full time activist’ for JSO.

She is still listed as a civil servant on her LinkedIn account but the Mail understands she left the DWP earlier this year. Her co-conspirator Mr Macdonald is a JSO activist from Brighton who was in court only a few weeks ago for another stunt – this time for the Palestinian cause.

Critics say the attack on Stansted shows how often protesters are bailed before committing more crimes.

The stunt came just a day after activists targeted Stonehenge, throwing powder paint over the stones. Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer showed a rare united front in their condemnation, with the PM calling it ‘disgraceful’ and the Labour leader branding it ‘pathetic’.