Councillor who smashed bank's windows is sentenced

Amanda Fox and another woman attacked a Barclays branch in Norwich in 2021

A councillor convicted of criminal damage after smashing the windows of a Norwich bank has been sentenced to 60 hours community service.

Green Party city councillor Amanda Fox and another woman, who were members of environmental activist group Extinction Rebellion, attacked Barclays on St James' Court in April 2021.

In August, King's Lynn Crown Court heard how the pair used hammers and chisels to cause damage worth £5,000.

Fox, 52, of Kilderkin Way, Norwich, has defied calls to resign as a city councillor for the Mancroft ward.

After her conviction, she told the BBC that no violence had been directed against anyone in the bank and that she and her accomplice, Jennifer Parkhouse, had ensured the branch was empty at the time of the attack.

Fox was elected as a Green Party councillor for Mancroft in May 2023.

Both she and Parkhouse, 71, of Vale Green in the city, had denied the offences but were convicted after a trial in King's Lynn.

The pair were sentenced at Huntingdon Crown Court in Cambridgeshire on Friday, with Parkhouse ordered to complete 100 hours of community service.

Extinction Rebellion has been linked to other attacks on Barclays branches across England over what the campaigning group says is the bank's support for fossil fuel projects.

Barclays previously said: "We are determined to play our part in addressing the urgent and complex challenge of climate change."