Mother of Cambridge-educated JSO activist, 22, jailed for disrupting hardworking Brits by scaling M25 gantry including those who missed flights, funerals and even a cancer …

By Katherine Lawton[1]

Published: 11:29, 23 July 2024 | Updated: 16:46, 23 July 2024

The mother of a Just Stop Oil[2] activist jailed for disrupting thousands of hardworking people by scaling the M25 gantry has complained she ‘will not be present at her brother’s wedding’.

Cressida Gethin, a 22-year-old Cambridge University[3] student, was sentenced to four years for conspiracy to cause a public nuisance on July 18.

The stunt, pulled by Cressida and 44 other activists, disrupted London[4]‘s M25 motorway for four days in 2022.

It caused a staggering 50,000 hours of delays affecting more than 700,000 vehicles, it was claimed, and left the M25 ‘compromised’ for more than 120 hours.

One person suffering an aggressive form of cancer[5] 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.

Children with special educational needs were also delayed on their way to school, one without access to his medication, meaning the driver was put at risk as the child could have become volatile.

Cressida’s mother Cathy, from Herefordshire, has spoken outside court after her daughter received her four-year sentence for her part in the stunt.

‘My daughter is Cressida Gethin. At the age of 22 she was the youngest defendant and she has just been sentenced today to four years in prison.

This means she will not be present at her brother’s wedding next summer,’ she said.

Cressida Gethin (pictured), 22, was sentenced to four years for conspiracy to cause a public nuisance on July 18

Cressida Gethin’s mother Cathy (pictured) spoke outside court after her daughter received a sentence of four years for her part in the JSO M25 stunt

Police watch as traffic is held back as an activist from Just Stop Oil occupies a gantry over the M25 near Godstone in Surrey

The Gethin family’s idyllic country house in Hereford, Herefordshire.

Cressida grew up in the countryside, according to her mother

Cathy (third left) is a bell-ringer at their local church in Herefordshire

From left to right: Lucia Whittaker De Abreu, Cressida Gethin, Louise Lancaster, Daniel Shaw and Roger Hallam.

Hallam was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment while the remaining four defendants were each handed four years’ imprisonment

Cressida on the M25 motorway gantry in July 2022

Photographs show the Gethin family’s idyllic country house in Hereford, Herefordshire, which boasts a large driveway and grand pillars at the front entrance.

Cathy is a bell-ringer at the family’s local church, while Cressida’s father Nick has been a cellist with the London Symphony Orchestra for many years.

Cathy added: ‘I want to bring [Cressida] to life for those of you who were not present in the courtroom.

‘Cressida grew up in the countryside, and is one of those nature loving defendants that you heard about.

‘She is an extremely talented musician. She worked hard growing up. She achieved highly.

She has ambitions, dreams and hopes, like all young people. She had just finished her first year at university.’

Defending her daughter’s actions outside court, Cathy said: ‘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 and a moral compass that compels her to step forward when she sees wrong.

‘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.’

Cathy complained her daughter ‘will not be present at her brother’s wedding next summer’

Environmental Defender Michel Forst (centre) outside Southwark Crown Court with the five Just Stop Oil protesters who have been jailed

It comes as celebrities including Coldplay[6]‘s Chris Martin[7] and TV’s Chris Packham were branded ‘champagne socialists’ after signing an open letter over the ‘injustice’ of the sentences received by the five JSO activists.

Prosecutors said the protests caused an economic hit of at least GBP765,000 and cost the Metropolitan Police[8] more than GBP1.1million.

Furious social media users slammed the ‘out of touch’ celebrities for signing the open letter demanding a meeting with the attorney general to reassess the sentences.

One person wrote on X: ‘Demand!! Who do they think they are! Keep to their day jobs!’

Another added: ‘Totally agree with the out of touch Chris Packham. we should just [let] people do what they want, for long they want, how often they want.

‘JSO are a criminal gang.

Need to have funs removed and org shut down.’

A third said: ‘Surely. If Chris Packham feels so strongly about the JSO sentences, he would do the same as they did to draw attention to his objections? But as far as I can see, he plays it safe from the sidelines.

Hypocrite.’

People took to social media to slam the celebrities who signed an open letter regarding the ‘injustice’ of the sentences received by the five JSO activists

The letter in full

Open Letter for Whole Truth Five

Dear Attorney General, Richard Hermer KC,

This week has seen one of the greatest injustices in a British court in modern history. On Thursday 18th July, five people were given the highest sentences for nonviolent protest this country has ever seen. They were on trial for holding a zoom call, calling on others to take action to raise the alarm about the greatest threat humanity has ever faced: the climate and nature crises.

These sentences were handed down just days after the new government’s policy of no new licensing for oil and gas infrastructure was announced.

In a world of sound, evidence-based governance, none of this needed to happen. With prisons at breaking point and the new government acting urgently to address this, how can these sentences be seen as anything other than insanity? The sentences, ranging from 4 to 5 years, are higher than those given to many who commit serious sexual assault.

The defendants were denied the right to explain to a jury why they took the action they did, making a mockery of the right to a fair trial, with the judge saying that the Crown Prosecution’s agreed facts on climate collapse – including that the world has gone beyond 1.5 degrees for 12 consecutive months – were ‘neither here nor there’.

These five brave, defiant people, like all nonviolent protestors, are fulfilling a necessary service by alerting the nation to the grave risk we all face, as scientists in their droves express their fear that many of the Earth’s systems are already at breaking point.

Immediately after the verdict, the UN’s special rapporteur on environmental defenders issued an extraordinary statement: ‘Today marks a dark day for peaceful environmental protest, the protection of environmental defenders and indeed anyone concerned with the exercise of their fundamental freedoms in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.’

According to the Office for National Statistics, 74% of people in the UK want urgent action on the climate crisis. Until a couple of weeks ago that majority was blocked by a Prime Minister who used climate – an existential threat – as a wedge issue in an election he lost. This new government has inherited a suite of recent legislation that conflicts with International Human Rights Law, and has put everyone’s right to peaceful protest at risk.

The new government can address this now, as they have with fossil fuel licensing.

The world stands at a crossroads and so does our democracy.

We write in support of Chris Packham and Dale Vince’s request for an urgent meeting with you, to be recorded so it is transparent to the public, to discuss the jailing of truth tellers and their silencing in court.

Sincerely, and with love for all humanity,

Rowan Williams – Former Archbishop of Canterbury

Juliet Stevenson – Actor

Chrissie Hynde – Musician

James Hansen – Climate Scientist

Ben Okri – Writer

Sandi Toksvig – Writer

Danny Boyle – Filmmaker

Brian Eno – Musician

Sir Jonathan Pryce – Actor

Peter Gabriel – Musician

Philip Pullman – Author

Greg Searle MBE – Olympic Gold Medallist – Rowing

Sir Geoffrey Bindman KC – Solicitor

Sir David King Chair – Climate Crisis Advisory Group (CCAG)

Annie Lennox – Singer

Mick Whelan – General Secretary of ASLEF Union

Clive Lewis MP

Peter Kalmus – NASA Climate Scientist

Jolyon Maugham KC – Director, Good Law Project

Eddie Dempsey – RMT Senior Assistant General Secretary

Legal

Dr Svitlana Romanko – Lawyer and Non Profit Director

Melinda Janki – Environmental Lawyer

Lord John Hendy KC – Barrister

Michael Mansfield KC – Barrister

Prof Bill Bowring – Emeritus Professor, Barrister

Liz Davies KC – Barrister

Gregg Taylor KC – Former Barrister

Guy Linley-Adams – Solicitor, Lecturer

Renata Avila – Human Rights Lawyer

Christina Eckes – Professor of European Law

Cultural

Chris Martin – Musician

Frankie Boyle – Comedian

Steve Coogan – Actor

Jarvis Cocker – Songwriter

Tracey Emin DBE – Artist

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall – Chef, Broadcaster

Es Devlin – Artist and Stage Designer

Adam McKay – Filmmaker

Toby Jones – Actor

Adam Buxton – Podcaster

LondonCambridge University[9][10]

References

1. ^ Katherine Lawton (www.dailymail.co.uk)
2. ^ Just Stop Oil (www.dailymail.co.uk)
3. ^ Cambridge University (www.dailymail.co.uk)
4. ^ London (www.dailymail.co.uk)
5. ^ cancer (www.dailymail.co.uk)
6. ^ Coldplay (www.dailymail.co.uk)
7. ^ Chris Martin (www.dailymail.co.uk)
8. ^ Metropolitan Police (www.dailymail.co.uk)
9. ^ London (www.dailymail.co.uk)
10. ^ Cambridge University (www.dailymail.co.uk)