Four Just Stop Oil supporters who sprayed water-based red paint over the Treasury in 2022 have been given suspended sentences by a judge at Southwark Crown Court today. They took action in 2022 declaring that the UK government had blood on its hands as a result of its plans to encourage new oil and gas projects in the UK and its failure to address fuel poverty. [1]
Just Stop Oil supporters Selma Heimedinger and Edred Whittingham received 18-month suspended sentences, while Alexia Hall and Piers Clifford were given 15-month suspended sentences by Judge Rimmer.
Hall, Heimedinger and Whittingham were found guilty by a jury in January 2025 of causing criminal damage exceeding £5,000 while Clifford had earlier pleaded guilty to the same offence. In the 10 day trial before Judge Rimmer, the Prosecution presented evidence that suggested that the damage to the HM Treasury building on Whitehall cost £107,000 to repair.[2]
In June 2022, the four sprayed water-based red paint over the Treasury building, accusing the government of having “blood on its hands” for approving Shell’s Jackdaw gas field during a worsening cost of living crisis. On 30 January 2025, the day that three of them were found guilty, that approval was ruled unlawful by a Scottish court. [3] [4]
Speaking ahead of the sentencing, Selma Heimedinger, 25, a full-time campaigner and director of a community interest company from Hampshire, said:
“I am being punished because I didn’t play by the rules of the system. But how can we play by the rules when those rules are written by lobbyists and billionaires and the whole system is rigged against us? I am at peace with the action I took in 2022 because I acted on my conscience and out of love for all beings alive and yet to be born.”
Alexia Hall, 39, a mother of two and market gardener from Kent said:
“My sentence only highlights the corruption of this system and how, in this society, buildings are valued more highly than people. My kids, seven and nine, are being deprived of a liveable future, while their mum is being punished for acting to protect lives. The irony is that on the same day we were found guilty for taking action against the Jackdaw gas field, the courts declared the government approval of Jackdaw illegal – our action wasn’t violent, this system is.”
Edred Whittingham, 27, from Exeter, said:
“I acted to prevent harm and save lives — to protect my family and my community, especially the most vulnerable. I refuse to be a bystander to the mass death that is inevitable on our current path. It’s obvious to me that governments refusing to challenge the fossil fuel industry are guilty of the ultimate crime against humanity. That remains true, regardless of how the law judges me and my co-defendants.”
Just Stop Oil will continue to stand with those being prosecuted for peaceful resistance to fossil fuel expansion in the face of rapidly accelerating climate collapse.
ENDS
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Notes to Editors
[1] Just Stop Oil is committed to nonviolent direct action to resist the destruction of our communities as a result of climate breakdown. We do not consent to plans that will result in 3C of warming and mass death.
We demand an emergency plan to Just Stop Oil by 2030. Our government must work with other governments to end the extraction and burning of all oil, gas and coal by 2030.
Just Stop Oil is a member of the A22 Network of civil resistance projects.
Just Stop Oil ‘Blue Lights’ policy: our policy is, and has always been, to move out of the way for emergency vehicles with siren sounding and ‘blue lights’ on.
We take all possible steps to ensure that no-one’s safety is compromised by our actions.
