Climate activists guilty after spray-painting jets

Jennifer Kowalski, 29, (left) and Cole MacDonald, 23, (right) tried to target Taylor Swift's private jet

Two Just Stop Oil activists who sought to spray orange paint on Taylor Swift's private jet have been found guilty of criminally damaging two planes.

Jennifer Kowalski, 29, and Cole Macdonald, 23, breached a fence at London Stansted Airport in Essex with an angle grinder, before taking turns spraying the planes and filming it.

The pair told jurors at Chelmsford Crown Court they wanted to target the pop star's jet on 20 June 2024 in the hope she would speak out about climate change.

Kowalski, of Dumbarton in Scotland and Macdonald, of Brighton, were bailed ahead of sentencing on 27 October.

The jury took less than two hours to reach their unanimous verdicts.

Judge Alexander Mills said there was "no dispute" Kowalski and Macdonald caused the damage, spraying the aircraft with orange paint from a fire extinguisher.

An insurance firm and an investment group owned the planes that were damaged, rather than Swift, who was in the UK for her Eras tour.

The planes belonged to an insurance firm and an investment group

The planes had been parked in a VIP hangar run by Harrods Aviation, whose director Paul Norton said the damage could have been "catastrophic".

After the incident, Just Stop Oil posted a clip on social media captioned: "Just Stop Oil paint private jets hours after Taylor Swift's lands."

The paint could only be removed with aviation-approved chemicals, said prosecutor David Barr, adding that process took 45 hours over several days.

In his closing speech to jurors, Mr Barr said: "The only issue for you to decide is what was going through the minds of those defendants when they sprayed the aircraft."

Cole Macdonald said Swift's private jet use had been "publicly criticised"

Laura O'Brien, defending, said Kowalski had believed the paint could be hosed off the planes.

The defendant herself told jurors she was a Swift fan but "questioned her love" after learning of her regular use of a private jet.

Rebecca Martin added on behalf of Macdonald: "She believed, because she was told, [the paint] wouldn't have stuck to, stained or corroded the aircraft.

"She believed it would just slide off."

The judge asked that pre-sentence reports be prepared about the two defendants, warning them "all options" were on the cards for sentencing.