A Just Stop Oil activist from Stroud has been convicted following plans to bring Heathrow Airport to a standstill in a bid to disrupt flights at the UK’s busiest airport.
Adam Beard along with seven of his co-defendants was found guilty of conspiracy to cause a public nuisance at Heathrow Airport by a jury at Isleworth Crown Court yesterday, while another of his co-defendants was acquitted. A tenth supporter pleaded guilty before the trial.
The activists will all be sentenced at Isleworth Crown Court on Friday 16 May.
Seven of the demonstrators, aged between 26 and 61, were arrested after they were found with glue and angle grinders close to the perimeter fence of the airport on 24 July 2024.
Police have said the items in their possession showed they planned to cut through the fence and attach themselves to the surface of the airfield.
In his closing statement, Mr Beard,55, a gardener from Cainscross, Stroud, told the jury: “I have three grown-up children. Many of their generation are not having children because they know the dire future they would face. This is tragic and fills me with grief.
“I haven’t had the courage to ask my own children about this because I am too afraid of their response, whatever that would be. If they don’t feel they can have children due to the impact of the climate crisis I would find that heart-breaking. If they do, I can’t help wondering what their fate will be.
“Will our grandchildren die of starvation as crops fail, or in a wildfire? Will they drown in a flood or be caught up in the societal chaos that will follow the rapid and massive global migration that will undoubtedly result from the climate crisis?
“But at least in years to come, if any young person asks me what I did to avert the disaster that they will be living with and I knew about, I will be able to tell them that I did what I could.”
Following the verdict, Mr Beard added: “I have been found guilty of conspiring to cause a public nuisance. I maintain that I am not; I was trying to put pressure on the Government to sign the Fossil Fuel Non-proliferation Treaty to safeguard our future and that of countless generations to come. I was not trying to cause disruption but to prevent the unprecedented disruption already taking place around the world.”
Following the verdict the defendants issued the following statement: “We thank the jury for their service and accept their decision.
“Some of us now face many months in prison for planning an action that never happened. We sought to get media attention so that we could explain the growing suffering and the horror of our heating world and the urgency for global action. In that we count ourselves successful. A small victory won in the wider struggle against complacency, false hope and denial.
“We have no regrets. We planned our campaign with care, aiming to avoid harm and with the intention of preventing greater harm. The bigger crime would have been not to act.
“When it comes to global heating there are no winners. Governments are rolling the dice on billions of deaths and economic collapse as extreme heat, crop failure and starvation drive mass migration and civil unrest. Our government is failing to protect us and the courts and the judiciary are complicit. They are protecting those who profit from death and destruction while criminalising those standing up against it.
“Civil resistance to a morally bankrupt political class is not only necessary as an act of self-defence, it is also morally justified. There are many who know the horror of our situation, who nonetheless are carrying on with business as usual, in the mistaken belief that someone else will solve the problem. We are sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but if you don’t stand up and do something, we are going to lose literally everything.”
Chief Superintendent Ian Howells, from the Met’s Aviation Policing Command, said: “The reckless actions of this particular group would have not only put their own lives and the lives of others in danger, but caused havoc at Heathrow airport, bringing flights to a standstill.
“There is a clear distinction between peaceful protest and the criminal activity that this group sought to carry out.
“This kind of action will not be tolerated and the Met will continue to work with all our partners to protect the public, prevent disruption to Londoners and those visiting our city and bring offenders to justice.”
