Three Just Stop Oil protestors are accused of causing more than £100,000 of damage when red paint was daubed on the Treasury.
Piers Clifford, 60, Alexia Hall, 37, and Selma Heimedinger, 23, are accused of criminal damage over the stunt in June last year, which took place during a protest about Britain’s use of fossil fuels.
The three defendants were charged last month and are due to appear in the dock at Southwark crown court on Friday.
At a hearing at Westminster magistrates court last month, all three of the activists pleaded not guilty to criminal damage and were sent to stand trial in front of a jury.
In the incident on June 13, red paint was sprayed on the walls of the Treasury building as protestors holding ‘Just Stop Oil’ cannisters set up camp on the front steps.
“At 10:40hrs on Monday, 13 June officers on duty at the junction of Horseguards and Birdcage Walk witnessed a group throwing paint and attaching themselves to the exterior of a building”, the Met Police said in a statement.
“Additional officers attended. Three women and seven men were arrested for offences including criminal damage and causing a public nuisance.
“They were taken into police custody and have since been bailed.”
According to the charges, damage valued at £107,750.40 was allegedly caused to Treasury.
Clifford and Hall, both of Cowden in Kent, and Heimedinger, from Southsea, Hampshire, are currently on bail, on the conditions that they stay away from the borough of Westminster and are not found in possession in public of paint or devices capable of discharging paint.
