Six environmental activists who occupied a tunnel close to Euston station in protest against the HS2 rail project last year face a retrial after their acquittal was overturned in the high court.
Charges against the protesters in connection with the occupation in London were dismissed by a judge in October last year.
Daniel Hooper (also known as Swampy), Dr Larch Maxey, Isla Sandford, Lachlan Sandford, Juliet Stephenson-Clark and Scott Breen faced charges of aggravated trespass at Highbury Corner magistrates court in central London for their 31 days underground in January and February last year.
The protesters dug a 100ft (30-metre) tunnel network secretly over a period of months and stored up enough food and water supplies to last throughout the subterranean protest. During the occupation they spent much of their time digging and shoring up the structure they had created.
In October 2021, district judge Williams dismissed the charges in relation to the protest on the basis that HS2 was not carrying out any construction work on the site at the time the charges were levelled against the protesters.
However, the director of public prosecutions challenged her ruling. The case went to the high court and on Friday judges found in favour of the DPP and ordered a retrial at Highbury magistrates court in front of a new judge.
In their ruling, the judges found that the term “HS2 construction” encompassed clearing the site in preparation for the construction works to start including the eviction of the protesters and that Williams’ ruling was “irrational”.
The judgment states: “We take the view that there remains a strong public interest in the trial running its proper course.”
The subterranean environmental protest lasted for 31 days, one of the longest in UK protest history, although still short of the record of a 40-day tunnel protest in Essex in 2000.
Hooper said he was disappointed by the ruling. “It seems like the judgment from the magistrates court which acquitted us was overturned because the director of public prosecutions didn’t like it. Taking this case to the high court is wasting more public money, just as the HS2 project is.”
The court heard that the disruption to HS2’s work at the Euston site cost about £3.5m.
HS2 Ltd declined to comment.
