The decision to prosecute an 80-year-old retired vicar from Bristol who blocked the main entrance to the MOD in Filton at an Extinction Rebellion protest has been overturned, after a judge found she was exercising her freedom of expression rights.
Reverend Sue Parfitt, who strapped herself to a blockade outside the MOD in December 2020 for more than four hours before she was arrested, had been ordered to pay £1,500 last June after a judge at Bristol Magistrates Court found her guilty of obstruction.
But after she appealed the decision the case was taken to Bristol Crown Court. Today (Thursday, March 24) Recorder Robin Sellers said Rev Parfitt's obstruction of the entrance to the Abbeywood site was a "reasonable use of the highway."
