Five Just Stop Oil supporters were today given jail terms of up to 15 months, while the remaining four were given suspended sentences for an action at Heathrow Airport that never happened. The group planned action to demand a fossil fuel treaty to end the extraction and burning of oil, gas and coal by 2030. [1]
The nine supporters were arrested near Heathrow on 24 July 2024, the first day of the Oil Kills International Uprising to end fossil fuels and were convicted in March 2025 of conspiracy to cause a public nuisance. Since last July, the group has spent a combined total of 44 months in prison on remand. [2][3]
Today, at Isleworth Crown Court, Judge Duncan handed down a mix of prison and suspended sentences of between 11 and 15 months.
Luke Watson (35) and Rosa Hicks (29) were given prison sentences of 15 months, while Rory Wilson (25), Adam Beard (56) and Luke Elson (31) were given prison sentences of 12 months. All except Luke Watson will be released in view of time already served on remand. The remaining defendants Sally Davidson (37), Sean O’Callaghan (30), Hannah Schafer (61) and William Goldring (27) were each given suspended sentences of between 11 and 15 months, suspended for 2 years.
Luke Elson was further sentenced in the matter of the M25 gantry actions for which he was given a prison sentence of 15 months suspended for 2 years.
All defendants were ordered to pay costs of £2000, except Hannah Schaffer and Rory Wilson. All those with suspended sentences were also ordered to complete up to 180 hours of unpaid work in the community over the next 12 months.
The defendants issued the following statement:
“We are relieved to have avoided further incarceration, but it remains the case that we have all endured time in prison, some for many months for a nonviolent action that never happened. The UK is dangerously close to becoming an authoritarian regime in which human rights mean nothing and no dissent will be tolerated.
We planned our campaign with care, aiming to avoid harm and we remain convinced that to stand by and do nothing in the face of the incalculable harm that unchecked fossil fuels will bring would be the greater crime.
There’s a reason that our judge removed all legal defences and ruled the climate emergency to be ‘irrelevant’ at our trial, and it has nothing to do with justice or morality. It has to do with the profits and political power of the fossil fuel companies and the billionaires that control them.
Fossil fuels are driving us toward 2°C of global heating in the 2030s and billions of deaths within decades. Our government is failing to protect us and the courts and the judiciary are complicit. Prosecuting those who peacefully resist is no solution. Faced with the true horror of our situation, many more people will step into civil resistance to protect themselves and those they love. If not, we are all going to lose everything.”
At the sentencing hearing, the defendants argued amongst other things that the prosecution sought sentencing on the basis of facts that had not been evidenced in court, had omitted important information about the climate crisis which was relevant to their motivation and failed to mention that no-one has previously been jailed in this country for an agreement to take part in nonviolent direct action, where no actual damage or disruption has resulted.
Wildlife presenter Chris Packham wrote a letter to the court in support of the defendants in which he said [4]:
“As someone with a responsibility to communicate facts about science to the British public, I have been horrified to hear judges refer to the science of climate breakdown as ‘a matter of political opinion or belief’. Treating uncontested, peer reviewed, established science as a matter of opinion or belief is a uniquely dangerous form of ideological extremism, which should have no place in society, let alone a court of law.”
Jonathon Porritt, CBE also wrote to the court saying [5]:
“Campaigners are increasingly frustrated that government policy and specific interventions do not reflect even the mainstream consensus of climate scientists, let alone the growing number of so-called ‘outliers’.
“I’ve thought about these matters long and hard over the last 40 years. I completely understand why many more people today have come to see civil disobedience (and consequential acts of nonviolent direct action) as critical to ‘shifting the needle’, to ensuring that urgent and applied attention is now paid to what will otherwise become by far the most catastrophic crisis that humankind has ever faced.”
During their trial in March 2025 the judge removed all legal defences from the jury’s consideration, ruled the climate emergency to be ‘irrelevant’ and disallowed expert witnesses on international law or climate science. Five of the group have subsequently launched an appeal against the verdict after evidence emerged of serious misconduct by the jury. [6]
The Heathrow 9 took part on the first day of the Oil Kills International Uprising to end fossil fuels in which over 500 ordinary people from 22 different civil resistance groups and 14 countries across Europe, North America and Africa engaged in a campaign of civil resistance at international airports to demand a Fossil Fuel Treaty. Action takers glued themselves to tarmac, stood up in aeroplanes, glued and locked on at departure gates and held placards in airport terminals. There were 144 arrests at 31 different international airports.[7]
Commenting ahead of the sentencing, Tzeporah Berman, Chair, 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.”
Inês Teles, a spokesperson for Stay Grounded said:
“While the aviation industry profits from fuelling climate breakdown, those who fight for our present and future face escalating repression. This is no coincidence: governments are complicit with climate criminals, backing projects that will drive emissions even higher—such as the multiple airport expansion plans across the UK. They will go to any length to defend the status quo, even if it means trampling on our basic rights.”
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. But we know that locking people up to silence them will never work.
“For us in Norway the Just Stop Oil prisoners are a sign of strength, courage and commitment that inspires us to up our resistance against the fossil fuel elite that are driving us all towards a dystopian future. Along with everyone that took action with Just Stop Oil, they are a shining beacon of hope.”
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.
ENDS
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Notes to Editors
[1] Just Stop Oil is a member of the A22 Network of civil resistance projects.
April 26th 2025 was the last Just Stop Oil action, but our supporters will continue to tell the truth in the courts, speak out for our political prisoners, and call out the UK’s oppressive anti-protest laws.
Just Stop Oil continues to rely on small donations from the public to make this happen.
[2] Arrests: https://juststopoil.org/2024/07/24/just-stop-oil-supporters-arrested-as-international-uprising-begins/
[4] Letter of support from Chris Packham https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UM2kDH7un0uK7ipE0hpqxsvsl1sE-6hn/view?usp=drive_link
[5] Letter of support from Jonathon Porritt https://drive.google.com/file/d/1d7wurY4Dxlrj8yiIqXK0Me9981XJrImx/view?usp=drive_link
[7] Oil Kills Campaign: https://oilkills.org/2024/08/16/a-statement-from-oil-kills-we-arent-done-yet/
