A doctor from South Bristol has been cleared of committing any crime when he and other health professionals blocked a major bridge in London to protest about the climate emergency.
Dr Patrick Hart, a GP from Knowle, was one of around 30 health professionals from across the country who were blocked Lambeth Bridge and seven were arrested by police back in April this year after they refused to move and let motor traffic through.
Seven of them, including Dr Hart and Dr Rosie Jones, a clinical psychologist from Bath, were charged with a public order offence and ended up before City of London magistrates.
Read more: Just Stop Oil protestors from Bristol charged after 'road blocking demonstration'
But yesterday (Tuesday) the district judge hearing their case acquitted all seven of all charges, saying that he had not been convinced that the necessary steps required for the police to arrest protesters under Section 14 of the Public Order Act had been taken, and freed them.
According to Extinction Rebellion, Judge Robinson said during his ruling that he “was impressed by the integrity and rationality of their beliefs” and said that “their evidence was highly moving”.
Dr Hart, 36, was among health professionals who blocked the bridge with a banner that said: “For Health’s Sake. Stop financing fossil fuels”. The group of seven had been part of an earlier blockade by Extinction Rebellion that afternoon, on Sunday, April 10, but had stayed on after everyone else was moved on by the police. No motorised traffic was let through, apart from ambulances, but after half an hour police made multiple arrests.
Dr Hart has, more recently, damaged the pumps at a petrol station, as part of his campaign against fossil fuels and to raise awareness of the climate emergency. “I’m trying to make a point,” he said. “This is about the deaths of millions, the loss of everything we care about, in particular the loss of law and order.
“The level of disruption we caused was proportionate to the problems we face. I don’t want to be arrested, but I accept it as a consequence. I do this to protect the rule of law. Eighteen King’s Counsellors have said that we face the collapse of our legal system from the effects of climate breakdown,” he added.
Dr Rosie Jones, 48, was also cleared of committing any crime on Lambeth Bridge that day. “I meet more and more people who are deeply distressed about climate breakdown. People are feeling the unravelling happening around us: economically, politically and ecologically,” she said.
“We need to build networks of care and solidarity in our communities. We also desperately need to uphold the right to peaceful proportionate protest, so we can hold governments and oil companies to account. I'm glad the judge upheld this right,” she added.
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