Retired GP walks free over Drax train line protest

An environmental activist who halted a train bound for the UK's biggest power station has said she does not regret her actions after she walked free from court.

Grandmother Diana Warner was given a conditional discharge and told to pay costs at Leeds Crown Court on Tuesday, where last month she was found guilty of obstructing a railway during an incident on 14 December 2021.

The retired GP waved an orange flag at a train carrying wooden pellets that was travelling towards Drax Power Station, in Selby, North Yorkshire, which has been criticised for its wood-burning practices.

Speaking after her sentencing, Warner, 66, admitted she had feared being sent to prison but still stood by her actions.

Asked if she had ever regretted the protest, the former Green Party Parliamentary candidate replied: "No. A small amount of disruption in order to save lives was a choice I made.

"It was more effective than 30 years of campaigning I'd done before.

"It was a really good, peaceful, direct action. It didn't affect anyone except myself."

The court had earlier heard that Warner, of Filton Avenue in Bristol, had travelled to Yorkshire to stage the protest, which she carried out on a day she was due to appear at the High Court in London over another protest-related offence.

It was said she deliberately timed the stunt to "give greater prominence to her actions".

After halting the train, Warner moved off the tracks and allowed the train to pass, before then approaching a Network Rail employee to tell him she was the person responsible.

In mitigation, barrister Rosalind Burgin said Warner had been deeply "impacted" by a brief spell in prison in 2022 and that she now campaigned in less disruptive ways as a result.

She has four previous convictions for five protest-related offences since 2019, the court was told.

The Recorder of Leeds, Guy Kearl KC, said it was not the court's job to assess the "validity or merit" of the protest.

But he told Warner: "I accept you are deeply committed to the cause you support and your motive is conscientious."

He said the incident was "short-lived" and "avoided direct disruption to the general public".

Besides the conditional discharge, which requires Warner to avoid committing any further offences in the next two years, she was also told to pay £4,380 in court costs.

Speaking on the steps outside court where she was surrounded by supporters, Warner said she was "so relieved" to have avoided prison and described her sentencing as "fair".

But she was critical of Recorder Kearl for having told the jury during her trial they should test the case "on the evidence, not your conscience".

That instruction was given when the jury said they were struggling to come to a verdict.

Warner said: "What happens when a jury is told they must ignore the fact the defendant is desperately trying to save lives and protect people's health?

"This is an attack on the very basis most of us live by - that human life and wellbeing are of utmost importance and the rights to life and health are respected in law."

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