Chris Packham Testifies at Isleworth Trial of Activist

Cressida Gethin could be jailed for Just Stop Oil M25 protest

Chris Packham (left) with Cressida Gethin. Picture: Just Stop Oil

February 15, 2024

Environmentalist and broadcaster Chris Packham came to Isleworth Crown Court this Wednesday (14 February) to give evidence at a trial of a Just Stop Oil protestor.

He is offering support to Cressida Gethin, a 22-year-old music student from Hereford, even though the protest she took part in delayed him in traffic.

On 22 July 2022, she climbed onto a gantry above the M25 in Surrey causing severe congestion across the capital. The protest was made the day after temperatures in the UK reached their highest ever level of 40.3 degrees Celsius.

The offence she is accused of could carry a custodial sentence of up to ten years if she is found guilty. She was arrested alongside four other supporters of Just Stop Oil who climbed gantries in two other locations on the M25. They were demanding the government halt licensing and consents for the development of any new fossil-fuel projects in the UK.

Ms Gethin said, “I empathise sincerely with everyone who was affected by this action, and I hope that some can understand that I acted for them and their children. The 40C heatwave which prompted my actions was a taster of the avoidable suffering being facilitated by the government. In a time of crisis, it becomes a moral compulsion to sound the alarm.”

The trial was already in its eighth day when Mr. Packham attended as well as offering a statement of support for her actions.

He said, “Because of Cressie, and other Just Stop Oil protesters, I sat sweating on the M25. Was I inconvenienced? Well, that’s a relative value. I was late to work, but my house was not burning down. I wasn’t drowning in a flood, displaced by famine, or separated from my family as a climate refugee. I was just sat on the M25, a position that I and millions of others find themselves in every single day of the year. Not because of protesters, but because our traffic system is broken, overloaded or stalled due to a breakdown or tragic accident.

“So I used my ‘inconvenience’ for good… I imagined the motives of the protesters, why they were taking such a physical risk and further risking imprisonment. I imagined how scared they must have been hanging onto a gantry. I also thought about their message and how in a record breaking heat wave - with our government's Net Zero policy not fit for purpose - they should be commended for sounding a vital alarm. I reconciled that my ‘inconvenience’ was entirely justified.”

“I am attending court to support Cressie Gethin because I don't think she is getting a fair trial. I think, along with the UN, that the UK’s protest laws and sentencing of protesters are unjust, draconian, and in conflict with our basic human rights. I think we are witnesses to disproportionate vindictive witch hunts hell-bent on punishing some of the bravest individuals in society just because they are forced to struggle to tell the truth. These trials are shameful, demeaning, and undemocratic. I set a challenge to the judge, the prosecution, and their witnesses… go home and tell someone you know: a son, daughter, nephew or niece who is under 25 what you have done today and then ask them if they are proud of you’”.

Ms Gethin is charged with causing a public nuisance, a statutory offence under the new Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 which allows considerably increased sentences for such offences.

A Just Stop Oil spokesperson commented, “Chris Packham was personally disrupted by this action, however he is advocating for Cressie today because he recognises the fundamental truth that short-term traffic disruption is nothing when compared to the level of disruption that will be imposed on all of us as a result of the ongoing collapse of our life support systems.”

“The courts can try to silence people like Cressie, but as the magnitude of our predicament becomes clearer, many more ordinary people will take matters into their own hands to try to prevent a much greater harm. It is clear that new oil and gas means societal collapse, and if Labour or the Conservatives prioritise corrupt scheming over our lives, then they can expect mass noncompliance.”

Two other Just Stop Oil supporters arrested on the day have pleaded guilty to causing a public nuisance, they are due to be sentenced by the 20 February.