Four Greenpeace activists who staged a “no new oil” protest on the roof of Rishi Sunak’s North Yorkshire manor house have had charges of criminal damage thrown out.
The activists said “justice and common sense” had prevailed after a judge on Friday ruled the evidence against them was “tenuous” and they had no case to answer.
They also called on Keir Starmer to reverse “draconian, anti-protest” laws introduced by the previous government.
Adrian Lower, a district judge sitting at York magistrates court, ruled there was no case to answer against the four protesters.
He said his full ruling would follow but described the evidence against the four as “tenuous”.
His judgment came two months after a criminal damage trial against the four was opened and then adjourned on the second day.
It heard that 15 roof tiles on the former prime minister’s house at Kirby Sigston, near Northallerton, were damaged during the rooftop demonstration in August 2023. Six were Welsh blue tiles and nine were Westmorland tiles, the court was told.
The repair cost was £2,937.96 including VAT, the court heard, and tree surgeons who were not able to work at the property because of the protest still charged their daily rate of £1,450.
Mathieu Soete, 38, of Antwerp, Amy Rugg-Easey, 33, of Newcastle, Alexandra Wilson, 32, of St Ives, and Michael Grant, 64, of Edinburgh, pleaded not guilty to criminal damage.
A defence barrister argued there was insufficient evidence to prove that the protesters had damaged the tiles. Owen Greenhall said the defence case was that “these defendants did not cause any damage, that it was pre-existing”.
He told the court: “If there was any damage, it certainly wasn’t done intentionally. These defendants were not aware of the risk of damage. They were taking care.”
Sunak and his wife, Akshata Murty, and their two daughters were away from the house, on their summer holidays, when the four activists climbed on the roof and covered one side of the building in black fabric, in protest at the decision to license “hundreds” more oil and gas drill sites in the North Sea.
The prosecution argued that the defendants were “reckless” when they climbed the roof for what was a five hour protest.
Delivering a statement outside the court building, Grant said: “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.”
He said peaceful protest was a vital part of democracy which had brought equal votes for women, the right to a weekend and bans on commercial whaling and fracking.
“For Keir Starmer’s government we have a simple question: how much longer will they sit back and watch as this draconian crackdown on dissent keeps unfolding on their watch.”
Grant said the process had been difficult and long but they were glad of the outcome. Others were not so lucky and were in jail, he said, “for doing what we were trying to do, for trying to preserve a habitable planet.”
Some people have criticised the protesters for targeting a family home but Grant said they knew Sunak and his family were on holiday in California when they staged the protest. “We knocked on the door. There was nobody in the building and we knew that.”
During the trial, the Sunak family’s personal chief of staff, Scott Hall, said the property was “well-maintained” and staff “would have been aware of any damage to the roof”.
But in cross examination he agreed there did appear to be some cracks in areas of the roof away from the protest that he had not been aware of, and that some of the house’s window frames appeared to have peeling paint.
