One of the 12 people who were sentenced on Thursday (December 22) for blocking the M4 during a Heathrow protest has spoken out against the expansion of the airport.

Henry Owen, from Oxford, was one of the 12 protesters who pleaded guilty to obstructing a public highway during an anti- third runway protest near the airport on November 19.

Owen and 11 others appeared at Ealing Magistrates' Court on Thursday where they were sentenced to pay court costs of £85, plus an additional charge of £20 and each received a 12 month conditional discharge.

Speaking after the court hearing, Owen, 24, said: “The judge recognised that we were compelled to act by the urgency to tackle climate change and sentenced accordingly.

“However, that we were in court at all fails to acknowledge that expanding Heathrow is a disastrous policy whichever way you look at it.

“It would mean more air pollution, more climate changing emissions and the bulldozing of hundreds of people's homes.

“Our protest is only the beginning of waves of action that will, in time, bring the plans to expand Heathrow to a halt.”

Others sentenced

The other protesters who pleaded guilty are:

  • 24-year-old Madeleine Allis-Petersen of Ealing, London.
  • 44-year-old Simon Bramwell of Stroud, Gloucestershire.
  • Ian Bray, 49 of Kirklees, West Yorkshire.
  • 53-year-old Graham Lewis of Wells, Somerset.
  • Thomas Harford, 26, from Bristol, Avon.
  • Sibi Moore, 21 from Sidmouth, Devon.
  • 25-year-old Antoine Thalmann of Oxford.
  • 28-year-old Joanne Louise Bodimeade, of Lambeth, London.
  • Tess Lotter, 30 of Camden, London.
  • Alexis Delage, 25 of Lewisham, London.

  • 29-year-old Tom Venner-Woodcock, 29, of Southark, London

Three other people have pleaded not guilty to the charge of obstructing the road – Isabelle Anderson, 30, from Stratford in London, 28-year-old Sophia Lysaczanko of Haringey in London, and 67-year-old Margaret Charnley.

The trio are set to appear at Uxbridge Magistrates' Court on February 6 and 7 next year.

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