Five environmental activists were detained over the weekend over protests at oil terminals in Essex and Warwickshire.
Three members of the Just Stop Oil campaign, detained by Warwickshire police, were taken to Coventry Magistrates’ Court on Monday morning.
Catherine Dowds, 28, Jake Handling, 27, and Josh Smith, 29, have pleaded guilty to aggravated breach at the Kingsbury oil terminal after their lawyer did not appear to advise them, according to a campaign source.
Dowds was fined £ 327, and Handling and Smith were fined £ 150 each. All were then released, only to be re-arrested immediately and detained again by police for violating a Supreme Court order banning protests at the Kingsbury site, Just Stop Oil said.
“It is believed that they will appear in the Birmingham or Coventry County Court tomorrow in connection with this accusation,” the campaign said.
In Essex, 34-year-old James Skeet and 27-year-old Stephanie Aylet were detained after dismissing allegations of aggravating and breach of bail conditions at the Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court on Saturday.
“Magistrates have heard that both Skeet and Aylet have been arrested many times in Essex since the riots began in the early hours of April 1,” the forces said in a statement.
Both were transferred to jail from police custody on Monday, Just Stop Oil reported. Their cases were due to be heard on Wednesday.
Just Stop Oil has been conducting direct operations, including mass violations, tunnels and blockades, at oil terminals and in areas around the Midlands and south-east of England since 1 April in an attempt to disrupt fossil fuel supplies. They have vowed to continue until the government agrees to a moratorium on new fossil fuel projects.
On Saturday, Catherine McLean of Hearstpoint in West Sussex became the first person to be convicted of participating in the Just Stop Oil campaign after pleading guilty to aggravated misconduct in Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court.
Just Stop Oil said there have been nearly 1,000 arrests so far in connection with the campaign. Nine other supporters of the campaign were released on bail after appearing in Coventry Magistrates’ Court on Saturday. Six pleaded not guilty, one pleaded not guilty and two pleaded not guilty, according to the campaign.
Valero Energy, a Texas-based company that owns Kingsbury, has been ordered by the Supreme Court to ban protests at any of its six sites in the UK. “The order authorizes arrests outside the terminal and at the intersection of roads leading to the area,” Warwickshire police said.
A spokesman for Just Stop Oil said: “The courts are complicit in supporting a government that is consciously nurturing climate change and will have the deaths of millions at its fingertips.
“Just Stop Oil’s supporters acted in accordance with their conscience. Just as suffragettes and freedom riders chose not to be bystanders in the face of the catastrophic and continuing injustice of the climate collapse.
“Some politicians and media experts have called the demand of Just Stop Oil and its supporters naive. But what is really naive is the continuing belief of the political and media establishment that young people will just lie down and die without resistance. “
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