Five Just Stop Oil protesters, including one of its co-founders, have been jailed for conspiring to organise protests that blocked the M25 motorway. Roger Hallam, an environmental activist who was one of the founding members of the group, agreed to causing disruption to traffic by having protesters climb onto gantries over the motorway for four successive days in November 2022. The 58-year-old was joined by Daniel Shaw, 38, Louise Lancaster, 58, Lucia Whittaker De Abreu, 35, and Cressida Gethin, 22, as they were all sentenced at Southwark Crown Court on Thursday. Hallam was sentenced to five years' imprisonment while the remaining four defendants were each handed four years' imprisonment. Prosecutors alleged the protests, which saw 45 people climb up the gantries, led to an economic cost of at least £765,000, while the cost to the Metropolitan Police was more than £1.1 million. They also allegedly caused more than 50,000 hours of vehicle delay, affecting more than 700,000 vehicles, and left the M25 'compromised' for more than 120 hours. Prosecutor Jocelyn Ledward KC told the court that a police officer suffered a concussion and bruising after being knocked off his motorbike in traffic caused by one of the protests on November 9, 2022. DM.
