Six environmental activists who underwent a retrial over charges related to tunnelling near Euston station in London in protest against HS2 have been sentenced.
All six either pleaded guilty or were found guilty in the retrial, and were given suspended sentences of between one and three months on Tuesday. They had initially been acquitted of aggravated trespass.
The tunnellers, who included Dan Hooper, otherwise known as Swampy, secretly built a 30-metre (100ft) tunnel network under the rail terminus and occupied it for 31 days, from 27 January to 27 February 2021.
The construction of the tunnel was concealed by a structure of pallets and plywood above ground, which the activists nicknamed Buckingham Pallets.
The protesters dug the tunnel network covertly over a period of months, and stored up enough food and water to help them survive the protracted subterranean protest.
During the tunnel occupation, they spent much of their time digging and shoring up the structure. The estimated cost of the delay to HS2 construction work caused by the tunnellers was about £3.8m.
The aim of their protest, which attracted international media coverage, was to draw attention to the high-speed rail project, which they claimed would cause damage to the environment due to the destruction of flora and fauna along the route, particularly ancient woodland.
HS2 disputes this and says the project is environmentally sustainable, and that once the rail link is completed, it will help shift many more people out of polluting cars and on to cleaner trains.
During their original trial at Highbury Corner magistrates court in north London, district judge Susan Williams, who has since retired, dismissed the charges of aggravated trespass against the protesters on the basis that HS2 was not carrying out any construction work on the site at the time the tunnellers occupied part of the area in Euston Square Gardens, in front of the station. Instead, their aim was to clear the site of protesters and begin the construction work.
She said: “There is no evidence of any constructor or construction taking place on the land at that time.”
But in a highly unusual move, the Crown Prosecution Service decided to challenge the activists’ acquittal in the high court. The CPS won and a retrial was ordered. Environmental activists accused the CPS of interfering with the right to protest non-violently about the climate emergency.
On Tuesday, three of the activists who had pleaded not guilty were found guilty of aggravated trespass by Judge Brennan. The other three pleaded guilty. All six were given prison sentences of between one and three months, suspended for 12 months.
There were nine activists involved in the tunnel protest, aged between 16 and 48. Two aged under 18 were not charged, and a third activist was unwell and unable to attend the court hearing.
Hooper, Isla Sandford and Juliett Stevenson-Clarke pleaded guilty at the retrial, while Scott Breen, Lachlan Sandford and Larch Maxey pleaded not guilty.
During the retrial this week, Brett Easter, a prosecution witness from the High Court Enforcement Group’s confined spaces team, told the court that the tunnellers’ activity was “highly undesirable and put their lives at risk”.
Maxey gave evidence about alleged violence from the bailiffs and said there were four occasions on which he thought he was going to die in the Euston tunnels, due to the actions of some of the bailiffs, which he said included twice pulling a jacket over his head, making him think he was going to suffocate.
Brennan said: “All the elements of aggravated trespass have been proved.”
The six protesters issued a statement after the verdict, saying: “As we watch climate collapse accelerate daily with fires, floods and food shortages, we need proper public transport, not a desperately unpopular prime minister cosplaying an oil baron.
“Everyone knows HS2 has failed. Euston has effectively been scrapped and the whole scheme is officially ‘unachievable’. Punish the corrupt politicians ruining ordinary people’s lives, not peaceful protectors.”
