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#ExtinctionRebellion #Tufton3

The Tufton Street 3 have been found guilty of criminal damage during an action outside the home of climate deniers The Global Warming Policy Foundation (now renamed Net Zero Watch).

Clare Farrell, Jessica Townsend and Rupert Read spray-chalked the word “Lies” onto the exterior of the building and poured fake blood down the steps of 55 Tufton Street during the action in September 2020.

Each received a six month conditional discharge and were ordered to pay a reduced court cost of £100 as well as a reduced compensation cost of £100.

Delivering their unusual sentence, – the minimal permissible – the panel of three magistrates at City of London Magistrates Court praised the trio for their “openness amd honesty”.

Author and campaigner Jonathan Porritt, who attended the trial, said: “This is a disappointing outcome but not unexpected. It doesn’t make the Global Policy Warming Foundation any less of a bunch of chronic liars.”

Actress and author Harriet Walter, who was also at the court in support said: “The wrong crime was on trial. Which is the greater crime? Reversible damage to a bit of property or landing our children and grandchildren with irreversible damage to the planet.”

Solicitor Raj Chada of HJA said: “Surely yet again, the CPS needs to consider whether it is in the public interest to prosecute when these are the sentences imposed.”

This morning Writers Rebel released a video featuring Irvine Welsh, Polly
Stenham, Max Porter and Laline Paull. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7HTmaMFSYg

Jessica Townsend, co-founder of Writers Rebel, which organised the Tufton Street action, said: “It’s my first time in the dock and it was surprisingly daunting. But I could feel the magistrates emotionally engage. Rupert and Clare gave towering speeches.”

About Extinction Rebellion

Time has almost entirely run out to address the ecological crisis which is upon us, including the 6th mass species extinction, global pollution, and abrupt, runaway climate change. Societal collapse and mass death are seen as inevitable by scientists and other credible voices, with human extinction also a possibility, if rapid action is not taken. Extinction Rebellion believes it is a citizen’s duty to rebel, using peaceful civil disobedience, when faced with criminal inactivity by their Government.

Extinction Rebellion’s demands are:

Government must tell the truth by declaring a climate and ecological emergency, working with other institutions to communicate the urgency for change.

Government must act now to halt biodiversity loss and reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2025.

Government must create and be led by the decisions of a Citizens’ Assembly on climate and ecological justice.