Greenpeace activists who targeted Sunak’s house have charges dropped

Four Greenpeace activists who targeted Rishi Sunak’s North Yorkshire mansion in a protest have walked free from court.

The protesters had been accused of damaging 15 roof slates during the five-hour demonstration at Mr Sunak’s home in Kirby Sigston last August.

But District Judge Adrian Lower ruled that the four activists had no case to answer after they were charged with criminal damage.

The four went on trial in July, but after the prosecution closed its case, Owen Greenhall, the defence lawyer, sought to have the case dismissed as it could not be proved the roof damage was caused during the protest.

Giving his ruling on Friday, Judge Lower said he had concluded the evidence against the defendants was “so tenuous” that no court would convict them.

The four draped 200 metres of black fabric over the front of the Grade-II listed property in a five-hour protest against new North Sea oil projects.

They were arrested and charged with criminal damage after being accused of “recklessly” damaging 12 slate tiles, leaving Mr Sunak with a £3,000 repair bill.

But the case against Michael Grant, 64, Mathieu Soete, 38, Amy Rugg-Easey, 33, and Alexandra Wilson, 32, was dropped after a district judge ruled they had “no case to answer”.

Previous action by activists

Ms Rugg-Easey, a watchmaker from Newcastle, was among Extinction Rebellion activists who shut down Tower Bridge for five hours by abseiling off the sides in 2022.

She also once glued herself to a Shell oil tanker as it left a petrol station in Paddington, west London.

During the election campaign in June, Ms Rugg-Easey mounted the Conservatives’ battle bus as it was parked in Nottinghamshire, unfurling a banner demanding “clean power not Paddy Power”.

Mr Grant, from Edinburgh, is a former lieutenant colonel who forced a Russian diesel tanker to turn around in the Thames in May 2022.

He was among 10 protesters cleared of criminal charges because the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine “could be described as terrorism”, a judge ruled.

Mr Soete is an energy campaigner from Antwerp, Belgium, who formerly worked in the EU Parliament.

Ms Wilson, from St Ives, Cornwall, was described by Greenpeace as a trainee physiotherapist who formerly worked in catering.

‘Weak’ evidence of broken tiles

York magistrates’ court was previously told that there was no clear evidence that the defendants caused the Westmorland and Welsh Blue tiles to break.

In legal submissions, Owen Greenhall, defending all four protesters, argued there was “no case to answer”.

He told Judge Adrian Bower: “It is clear that this is a roof where there was pre-existing damage in areas that the protesters did not go.

“It was not a pristine roof by any means, so the simple fact that there are cracks in the tiles on the southern elevation by itself cannot be enough to get over the criminal standard that the defendants are responsible.”

Delivering his conclusion on Friday, Judge Bower told the defendants they were “free to go”.

He said: “I’m not going to go into the detail about why I’ve come to the decision I have now.

“It will take quite some time to go through the detail in order to give a ruling. I have come to the conclusion that there is no case for you to answer.”

The judge said the evidence against the protesters was so “weak” and “tenuous” that there was no realistic prospect of a conviction.

The trial was previously told the group allegedly damaged nine Westmorland and six Welsh Blue roof slates, which was said to have cost Mr Sunak £2,937.86 to fix.

The figure of 15 broken tiles was later conceded by the prosecution to be a maximum of 12.

Mr Sunak also had to pay a £1,450 invoice to tree surgeons whose arranged work at the manor had to be cancelled.

The former PM, 44, his wife Akshata Murty, 44, and their two daughters were on holiday when eight Greenpeace activists entered the manor on Aug 3 last year.

Four people dressed in red overalls and safety helmets scaled the roof using ladders and ropes shortly before 8am to cover the front of the property in thick black sheeting. They then displayed a large placard which read: “No New Oil”.

Judge Bower will deliver his full ruling on his finding of no case to answer on Nov 11.

Group arrested

On June 25 this year another group of four men were arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespass at the former prime minister’s home.

The suspects were arrested in the grounds of his property at about 12.40pm before being escorted off the property, North Yorkshire police said at the time.

The force said the men included a 52-year-old from London, a 43-year-old from Bolton, a 21-year-old from Manchester, and a 20-year-old from Chichester.

The arrests on that occasion were connected to a protest by Youth Demand, which describes itself as a campaign group who want “the Tories and the Labour Party [to] commit to a two-way arms embargo on Israel, and to stop all new oil and gas licences”.