Four Just Stop Oil supporters have been sentenced to prison in relation to an attempted action at Manchester Airport in August 2024. The four took action as part of the ‘Oil Kills’ international uprising, which occurred across 31 airports around the world, in order to demand a fossil fuel treaty to end the extraction and burning of oil, gas and coal by 2030. [1]
Daniel Knorr (23), Margaret Reid (54), Indigo Rumbelow (31) and Ella Ward (22) appeared before Judge MacAdam this morning at Manchester Crown Court on Minshull Street. Indigo Rumbelow received a 30 month custodial sentence. Daniel Knorr received a 24 month custodial sentence. Ella Ward and Margaret Reid each received an 18 month custodial sentence. Each were ordered to pay £2000 in costs.
As they were sentenced, some of the defendents shouted, ‘billions will die without action, this court is complicit!’
In February, all four defendants were found guilty by majority verdict of ‘conspiracy to commit a public nuisance’. They were arrested in the early hours of the 5th August 2024, as they left a BnB in Gatley Close to head to Manchester Airport. They have been held on remand since that time, briefly being granted bail during the duration of the trial, however were immediately sent back to prison at the end of proceedings. [2]
During the trial, the defendants freely admitted planning to access the airport via the perimeter fence and then, if possible, three would glue on to the taxiway. They made the case that they were seeking to prevent harm and inform the public of the huge risks now unfolding due to the collapsing climate.
During the course of proceedings, Judge MacAdam stated that he was ‘neutral’ on the topic of climate breakdown, elaborating that he ‘didn’t have time’ to read scientific reports on the topic, despite overseeing a climate trial.
One of those sentenced this morning was Daniel Knorr, who prior to sentencing said:
“Since my imprisonment began, things have continued to get worse. The world still sleepwalks towards hell. Current estimates tell us the world will reach three degrees of warming. This means abject terror for ordinary people, it means billions made refugees and billions killed. It means hundreds more floods like storm Daniel, where over 10,000 people were washed out to sea.
People are taking action because they are terrified of what rising temperatures and food shortages will mean for them and for their kids. So as long as the climate crisis keeps getting worse, people will keep taking action, prison or not.”
Prior to sentencing Ella Ward said:
“I’m not worried about my sentence, I’m worried about living in a world where crop failure means I can’t put food on the table. I’m worried about living in a world where billions suffer and die for a small number of rich people to get richer. I acted because doing nothing is unthinkable and because the science is clear. We have no other option: we have to just stop oil.”
Also speaking before sentencing Indigo said:
“Each day I have sat in prison, the ice melts faster, the fires burn wilder and the extinction rate climbs steeper. If the courts want law and order they need to start prosecuting those who extract and burn oil and gas while knowing that it will lead to the deaths of billions of people.”
Reading from her mitigation statement Margaret said:
“I am here because I don’t want to sit back and watch billions of people suffer and die.
I will accept whatever conditions the court imposes on me… but it breaks my heart that whatever sentence you impose will make no difference at all to the existential threat that is hanging over every single one of us in this court, and over everyone we love.”
Commenting ahead of the sentencing, Tzeporah Berman, Chair of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative said:
“The citizens standing up to raise awareness of how fossil fuels are causing lethal heat waves, floods and droughts and threatening our children and our health are not criminals – history will remember them as heroes. Our laws have been distorted by the wealth and influence of the oil and gas companies that continue to call the shots to protect their obscene profits over the public good.”
Calum Macintyre, 32, from Folk Mot Fossilmakta, who also joined the campaign last summer said:
“I took action as part of the Oil Kills campaign last summer in Norway. We broke through the fence at Oslo airport and glued ourselves to the taxiway. Afterwards the police took our details and drove us to the train station in order to get home. No night in the cells, no months on remand, no threat of years long prison sentences. Two of us have just been to court and were fined.
“Compared to the treatment of our friends in the UK – many of whom have been sitting on remand since last summer – the difference could not be more stark. It is terrifying to see the erosion of people’s civil liberties in the UK.”
In 2024 Just Stop Oil successfully won its original demand of ‘no new oil and gas’ and on March 27th 2025 announced an end to the campaign of action. However, our supporters will continue to tell the truth in court, to speak out for our political prisoners and to help build what comes next.
During our 3 year history Just Stop Oil supporters have been arrested 3,300 times and imprisoned 180 times, for having broken laws that were drafted by the fossil fuel industry. After today’s sentencing there will be seven people in prison as a result of taking action with Just Stop Oil. [3]
ENDS
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Notes to Editors
[1] Just Stop Oil is a coalition of groups working together to demand that the government immediately halt all future licensing and consents for the exploration, development and production of fossil fuels in the UK. 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.
