Just Stop Oil activists ‘waltzing’ round their jail cells to music

Two Just Stop Oil activists jailed for disrupting thousands of motorists after they scaled a gantry on the M25 say they have been “waltzing” around their prison cell to music[1]. Cressida Gethin, 22, and Lucia Whittaker De Abreu, 35, spoke in a joint statement from prison of the “injustice of what has been done to us”, while at the same time revealing they have been “waltzing round our cell to music playing on our little plastic television”. The pair were among five Just Stop Oil activists sentenced to prison after being found guilty by a jury of disrupting the M25 motorway for four days in 2022, causing 50,000 hours of delays for over 700,000 vehicles, including those attending funerals and hospital appointments[2].

De Abreu and Gethin were convicted earlier this month and sentenced to four years[3], along with Roger Hallam[4], Daniel Shaw and Louise Lancaster, for conspiracy to cause a public nuisance for coordinating direct action protests on the motorway. The pair said their imprisonment meant they now joined hundreds of women who have been “abjectly failed” by society. Speaking from her jail cell, Gethin said her fellow inmates understood the “injustice” of what had been done more than “most people on the street”.

An activist on an M25 gantry in 2022 Credit: Leon Neal/Getty

In the statement, Gethin, a Cambridge University student and former Hereford Cathedral School pupil, said: “Nowhere is the violence of the system more obvious, nowhere is it clearer how our profit-driven economy stamps on anyone and anything that doesn’t conform.

“People here have to fight to survive, the resilience and resourcefulness is inspiring. “If Judge Hehir believes that sending non-violent action-takers to prison will break us and extinguish the resistance, he will be disappointed.” After Gethin was jailed along with De Abreu, Hallam, Shaw and Lancaster, her mother, Cathy, from Herefordshire, said: “At the age of 22 she was the youngest defendant and she has just been sentenced today to four years in prison[5].

This means she will not be present at her brother’s wedding next summer. “Cressida also grew up completely understanding right and wrong. She has always been unable to stand by when she sees injustice.

“She has the courage of a lion[6] and a moral compass that compels her to step forward when she sees wrong.” Ms Gethin, a bell ringer at her local church, added: “Like many of the defendants, Cressida tried polite routes to protest and to persuade to affect change. But when she heard the science and saw that no one was paying attention, she felt she had no option.”

Prosecutors alleged Just Stop Oil’s M25 blockade, in which 45 people scaled the gantries, led to an economic cost of at least GBP765,000, while the cost to the Metropolitan Police was more than GBP1.1 million.

One person suffering an aggressive form of cancer missed a vital appointment due to the chaos and had to wait two months to be seen as a result.

Others were late for flights while some even missed funerals due to traffic jams caused by the protest.

References

1. ^ “waltzing” around their prison cell to music (x.com)
2. ^ attending funerals and hospital appointments (www.telegraph.co.uk)
3. ^ sentenced to four years (www.telegraph.co.uk)
4. ^ Roger Hallam (www.telegraph.co.uk)
5. ^ sentenced today to four years in prison (www.telegraph.co.uk)
6. ^ the courage of a lion (www.telegraph.co.uk)