Silverstone track invaders lose appeals

Five protesters have lost their appeal against convictions for invading the track during the 2022 British Grand Prix.

Four men and one woman were found guilty of risking "serious harm" to drivers and marshals during the invasion at the Silverstone Circuit in Northamptonshire.

Two were given suspended prison sentences, and the other three received community orders.

Three appeal court judges have now ruled their convictions were not unsafe.

A total of six Just Stop Oil activists had been convicted at Northampton Crown Court in February 2023 after jurors were shown footage of some of them sitting on and being dragged off the circuit at Silverstone as two Formula One cars passed close by.

The six protesters were:

• Emily Brocklebank, 27, from Yeadon in Leeds
• Alasdair Gibson, 23, from Aberdeen
• Louis McKechnie, 23, from Manchester
• Joshua Smith, 31, from Lees in Oldham
• David Baldwin, 49, from Stonesfield in Oxfordshire
• Bethany Mogie, 40, from St Albans, Hertfordshire

Mogie, who received a six-month jail term suspended for two years, withdrew her appeal before the hearing.

The activists all denied causing a public nuisance at the July 2022 race, claiming the protest had followed a "meticulous" safety plan.

Five of them went onto the track, while Baldwin was found in a car park along with glue, cable ties and a Just Stop Oil banner.

Baldwin, Gibson and Smith were handed 12-month community orders by Mr Justice Garnham in March last year.

McKechnie and Brocklebank, who have previous convictions for glueing themselves to the frame of a £70 million Van Gogh painting days before the F1 protest, were given suspended prison sentences of 12 months and six months, respectively, both suspended for two years.

At an appeal hearing in June, the protesters' lawyers argued that their convictions were "unsafe".

On Friday, Lord Justice Holroyde, who considered the cases alongside Mr Justice Griffiths and Judge Nicholas Dean, dismissed all the appeals.

They concluded that directions given to jurors by the judge overseeing the protesters' trial at Northampton Crown Court contained "no error of law".

In the 16-page written ruling, Lord Justice Holroyde said: "Given the strength of the prosecution case, taking into account only the risk to drivers, marshals, and others who might assist the marshals, we are satisfied that the terms in which the judge directed the jury do not render the convictions unsafe."

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