As he sat in the dock last month awaiting the jury’s verdict, Ian Bray, 53, a co-founder of Extinction Rebellion, was prepared for the worst. The salvage worker from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, and five other climate change activists had admitted involvement in causing £25,000 damage to Shell’s London headquarters during a protest in 2019 — but had tried to argue that a “bigger crime” was being committed against the environment by the oil giant. Sponsored“They don’t have any defence in law for the charges they face,” Judge Gregory Perrins warned the jury at Southwark crown court in south London. Ian Bray, left, and five other activists were cleared of causing criminal damages to Shell’s headquarters YUI MOK/PABray recalled: “I was kind of expecting to sit there and be stitched up.” Instead, the jury of seven women and five men chose to defy

Source: The Times May 22, 2021 17:15 UTC