Extinction Rebellion protester to face trial after Court of Appeal ruling

An Extinction Rebellion protester charged with causing criminal damage at a Department for Transport building in London is to face trial after a Court of Appeal ruling.

Gail Bradbrook, 50, is accused of smashing a plate-glass window worth £27,500 at the office in October 2019.

A trial was moved several times pending the outcome of a Court of Appeal ruling on defendants' rights to protest.

A date has been set for July because the "legal landscape has now settled".

The Court of Appeal was deciding whether protesters can rely on a human rights defence when accused of criminal damage.

As attorney general, Suella Braverman referred to the Court of Appeal the case of the so-called Colston four, who were acquitted in January of criminal damage after they toppled a bronze statue of the 17th Century slave trader Edward Colston, in Bristol.

Part of their defence had relied on convincing the jury a conviction would be a disproportionate interference with the defendants' rights to protest under the European Convention on Human Rights.

At a ruling handed down in September, Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett, Mr Justice Holgate and Mr Justice Saini said the Colston protest fell outside of the protection of the convention because it was violent and led to significant damage.

As a result, at Isleworth Crown Court, where Ms Bradbrook, of Stroud, Gloucestershire, is due to be tried, Judge Martin Edmunds KC set a trial date of 17 July because the "legal landscape has now settled".

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