BL-2023-000713 - Draft Authorities Bundle

blocked various tankers from entering the site. Some climbed on top of the tankers. Police in large numbers were used to tidy up the protest. On the next day, the 2nd of April 2022, protesters again blocked public and private access roads at various places at the Kingsbury site. Further arrests were made. Mr Blackhouse was present at the site. 28. In his third witness statement he summarised the nationwide disruption of the petrochemical industry which included protests at Esso West near Heathrow airport; Esso Hive in Southampton, BP Hamble in Southampton, Exolum in Essex, Navigator terminals in Essex, Esso Tyburn Road in Birmingham, Esso Purfleet in Essex, and the Kingsbury site in Warwickshire possessed by the Claimants and BP. In this witness statement Mr. Blackhouse asserted that during April 2022 protesters forcibly broke into the second Claimant’s Kingsbury site and climbed onto pipe racks, gantries and static tankers in the loading bays. He also presented evidence that protesters dug and occupied tunnels under the Kingsbury site’s private road and Piccadilly Way and Trinity Road. He asserted that 180 arrests were made around the Kingsbury site in April 2022. He asserted that he was confident that the protesters were aware of the existence of the injunction granted in March 2022 because of the signs put up at the Kingsbury site both at the entrances and at the access roads. He gave evidence that in late April and early May protesters stood in front of the signs advertising the injunction with their own signs stating: “ we are breaking the injunction ”. He evidenced that on the Just Stop Oil website the organisation wrote that they would not be “intimidated by changes to the law” and would not be stopped by “private injunctions”. Mr. Blackhouse evidenced that further protests took place in May, August and September at the Kingsbury site on a smaller scale involving the creation of tunnels and lock on positions to facilitate road closures. In July 2022 protesters under the banner of Extinction Rebellion staged a protest in Plymouth City centre marching to the entrance of the second Claimant’s Plymouth oil terminal which was blocked for two hours. Tanker movements had to be rescheduled. Mr. Blackhouse summarised further Just Stop Oil press releases in October 2022 asserting their campaign would “continue until their demands were met by the Government”. He set out various protests in central London and on the Dartford crossing bridge of the M25. Mr. Blackhouse also relied on a video released by one Roger Hallam, who he asserted was a co-founder of Just Stop Oil, through YouTube on the 4th of November 2022. He described this video as a call to arms making analogies with war and revolution and encouraging the “systematic disruption of society ” in an effort to change Government policies affecting global warming. He highlighted the sentence by Mr Hallam:

“if it's necessary to prevent some massive harm, some evil, some illegality, some immorality, it's justified, you have a right of necessity to cause harm”.

9 The video concluded with the assertion “there is no question that disruption is effective, the only question is doing enough of it”. In the same month Just Stop Oil was encouraging members of the public to sign up for arrestable direct action. In November 70

Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online