Three Just Stop Oil activists who sprayed Stonehenge with orange powder using fire extinguishers have been found not guilty of criminal damage and causing a public nuisance.
Rajan Naidu, 74, and University of Oxford student Niamh Lynch, 23, used two colour blasters filled with cornflour, talc and an orange dye to spray the World Heritage Site during a fossil fuel protest.
The court was told the pair, along with Luke Watson, 36, targeted Stonehenge the day before last year’s summer solstice where around 15,000 people were due to gather and celebrate.
Stonehenge was cherry-picked as the target for a Just Stop Oil stunt ‘to provide maximum impact’, prosecutors told the trial.
They had all denied charges of damaging an ancient protected monument and causing a public nuisance during the trial at Salisbury Crown Court.
The trio accepted taking part in the protest and cited in their defence ‘reasonable excuse’ and their rights under Articles 10 and 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights to freedom of speech and freedom to protest.
They told the court that the protest was a ‘peaceful action with good intentions’.
Following a trial, they have today been acquitted of criminal damage and causing a public nuisance.
The three protestors hugged and were seen smiling after the verdicts were delivered.
Judge Paul Dugdale thanked the jury but gave a warning to the courtroom, saying: ‘It is important to balance freedom of speech and allowing a heritage site to be left unmolested by the members of the public.’
Rajan Naidu (left), and Niamh Lynch were driven to Stonehenge by Luke Watson (right) in his grandmother’s Ford Fiesta, jurors were told
Jurors were told University of Oxford Student Niamh Lynch (pictured) and co-defendant Rajan Naidu crossed boundary ropes and trespassed into the area around the monument
Speaking after the verdicts, Naidu, said: ‘The judicial system must wake up and begin to play its shamefully neglected role in defending us and other species from rapacious billionaire class climate criminals.
‘We need a global Fossil Fuel Non-proliferation Treaty right now.’
Lynch, who is now a masters student in ecology and conservation at the University of Exeter, said: ‘I just want things to be better, I just want things to be fair and right.
‘If you see something you love being hurt, you do everything you can to help. It’s quite simple. It’s totally natural.
‘I might not be able to do much but I categorically refuse to do nothing. I refuse to stand by and watch as our world burns around us.’
Watson, a carpenter, added: ‘I’m glad of the verdict but feel the last two weeks have been a complete waste of public money and that a case involving £620 of damage should have been dealt with in the magistrates court.’
Salisbury Crown Court heard Watson had purchased the colour blasters – which had been described as fire extinguishers as the start of the case – from the Kingdom of Colours website, and his DNA was found on one of the blasters.
Watson had driven his co-accused to the Wiltshire monument on the morning of the protest in his grandmother’s Ford Fiesta.
Watson told jurors that he became involved in activism while working on an organic farm, first joining the Extinction Rebellion group in 2019 before getting involved with Just Stop Oil.
When asked by Simon Jones, prosecuting, whether he thought direct action was necessary, Naidu told jurors: ‘I felt it was, yes, because we’ve taken the actions which we’d talked about: the lobbying; we’ve had demonstrations; we’ve had marches; but still Government policy hasn’t changed.
‘We’re still on a highway to hell.’
Naidu told the court that the cylinders used in the stunt were a brand used in India as part of celebrations of the Hindu festival of colour, Holi
Before the incident, Mr Naidu said he had carried out research around the company which made the pre-made orange powder.
‘It is used in ceremonies and people throw it over one another and it is cleanable,’ he said.
In her closing speech on behalf of Ms Lynch, Audrey Morgan told the court that she was ‘devastated’ when police told her that there was a small amount of powder left on the stones in the short term.
The judge had also told the jury there was no medium to long term damage to the rare lichen on the stones.
Summarising Ms Lynch’s evidence, the judge said that she ‘assumed that the powder would be blown off by the summer solstice’.
Gerard Pitt, defending Mr Watson, asked the jury what its ‘legacy’ would be in his closing speech, and said that sometimes people ‘are going to take non violent action, and sometimes it’s going to need cleaning up’.
‘Tell the world that it’s fine, not only is it fine, you’re proud of it,’ he said.
Stonehenge was chosen as the target by the Just Stop Oil activist ‘to provide maximum impact’, prosecutors said
The court heard the clean up cost £620 to clean it after Naidu and Lynch, both pictured being arrested at the monument, sprayed the stones with cornflour and talc powder which had been dyed orange
The judge told the jury in his legal directions they had to assess where the ‘balance lies’ in the case and whether a conviction would be a ‘proportionate interference’ with the defendants’ rights.
‘In any society there will be those whose opinions we agree with and those whose opinions we disagree,’ he said.
‘The essence of a free society and freedom of speech is that everyone’s entitled to express their opinion even when we disagree with what they say.
‘If individuals disagree with what our Government is doing on certain matters they are entitled to protest about the Government’s actions or inactions.
‘All of this is the essence of our free society. It’s how our society has developed over the centuries and the reality is we are very fortunate to live in a free society.
‘There are times when protecting the right to freedom of speech and freedom to protest can mean that activity that would otherwise be unlawful would be regarded as lawful by the court to protect those rights.’
The jury found Naidu, of Gosford Street, Birmingham; Lynch, of Norfolk Road, Turvey, Bedford; and Watson, of The Street, Manuden, Essex, each not guilty of the two charges after deliberating for six hours.
Solicitor Francesca Cociani, of law firm Hodge Jones & Allen, who represented the protesters, said: ‘My clients are incredibly relieved by today’s verdict that exonerated them of any wrongdoing.
‘The public nuisance charge in this case, which argued their protest could have caused serious distress, annoyance or inconvenience to the public, was wholly inadequate and, in our view, should never have been brought, and amounted to an affront to their right to protest.
‘It is a relief that the jury has decided to uphold the right to peaceful protest.
‘It is a right that has long been, and should remain, an essential pillar of our democratic society, but we are seeing time and time again that this right is being eroded.’
Opening the trial last week, prosecutor Mr Jones told the jury that Stonehenge is ‘arguably the best recognised’ prehistoric stone circle ‘in the whole world’.
The prosecutor continued: ‘The site in Wiltshire is visited by members of the public all over the world, providing both an education and spiritual experience.
‘The stones are a protected monument.’
Mr Jones told jurors how on June 19 last year, Naidu and Lynch went behind boundary ropes at the site into a prohibited area.
He said: ‘They were trespassers, they knew they weren’t meant to be over those ropes in that area and they were armed with fire extinguishers containing an orange powder consisting of cornflour and talc that was stained with a highly fluorescent synthetic orange dye.
‘That substance was sprayed over the stones by both these defendants.’
Mr Jones said Stonehenge was deliberately chosen as a target to shock people.
He also revealed in court that the clean-up cost £620 and involved the use of a ‘specialist cleaning technique’
Mr Jones told jurors that Naidu and Lynch were ‘very determined’ and showed a ‘blatant disregard’.
It was also heard that an assistant at Stonehenge begged them ‘please stop’ and a member of the public also intervened.
