Climate activists cleared in UK of charges in rooftop protest at Sunak's estate

LONDON (AP) — Four Greenpeace activists arrested for scaling the country estate of former U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and draping it in black fabric to protest his plan to expand oil and gas drilling in the North Sea have been cleared of criminal charges.

Judge Adrian Lower in York Magistrates’ Court threw out the charges Friday after finding the evidence was too “tenuous” to convict them of criminal damage for allegedly cracking tiles on Sunak's slate roof in North Yorkshire.

“Justice and common sense prevailed in court today, but that hasn’t been the case for many activists recently," one of the defendants, Michael Grant, said outside court. “We have become a country that regularly sends peaceful protesters to jail, with some facing years behind bars for trying to preserve a habitable planet for us all. This has to stop."

While other environmental protesters, including climate activist Greta Thunberg, have also prevailed in U.K. courts, many others have been convicted and some have received stiff prison sentences.

Five activists who planned a protest to block traffic on a major highway circling London that caused major gridlock over several days in November 2022 were sentenced in July to as much as five years in prison.

The trial against Grant, 64, Amy Rugg-Easey, 33, Alexandra Wilson, 32, Mathieu Soete, 38, was halted in July after defense lawyer Owen Greenhall argued that prosecutors failed to prove that 15 slate tiles were damaged by the protesters during a five-hour protest in August 2023.

The four cloaked the house in long black sheets while two fellow protesters stood on the lawn below holding a banner with the words “Rishi Sunak — Oil Profits or Our Future?”

Sunak and his family were on vacation in California at the time.

Earlier that week, Sunak — a Conservative who was ousted in July this year by Labour Party leader Keir Starmer — had announced that Britain would grant hundreds of new oil and gas licenses in the North Sea, a move widely criticized for reversing the government’s pledge to eliminate net carbon emissions by 2050.

U.N. scientists and environmental groups have called on global leaders to accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels blamed on rising temperatures, drought and floods linked to human-made climate change. Burning oil and gas to power vehicles, factories and electricity generating stations releases huge amounts of carbon dioxide, the main driver of global warming.

Damage to Sunak's roof was estimated at about 3,000 pounds ($4,000).

A roofer who had a contract with Sunak testified at the trial that the 15 broken tiles he examined from an area where the protesters had been showed they were recently damaged.

But Greenhall said the testimony was unreliable because of the roofer’s business relationship with Sunak and because there was damage to tiles on other areas of the roof untouched by the protesters.

“It’s clear this is a roof where there is preexisting damage in areas where the protesters did not go," Greenhall said. “This is not a pristine roof by any means.”

The judge said that he would issue a full ruling on Nov. 11.