Activists cleared of charges over planned protest

All 15 defendants had denied the charges against them

Fifteen people have been cleared of planning to "lock" themselves onto objects at the UK's biggest power station as part of a climate protest.

The defendants stood trial at Leeds Magistrates' Court this week and were charged with being equipped to lock on at Drax, near Selby, in August 2024.

The group were accused of having items including an angle grinder, bolt cutters, superglue, gaffer tape and cable ties, which the prosecution said was evidence of their intention to cause serious disruption. All of them pleaded not guilty.

The case was dismissed earlier after their advocates argued there was insufficient evidence against them.

Police recovered numerous items after 12 of the defendants were arrested on 8 August at Bentley Urban Farm in Doncaster and a further three were arrested on the same day on the A645 at Goole, East Yorkshire.

Nicola Hall, who represented five defendants, said a "significant amount of camping equipment" had also been recovered, "that could be entirely properly utilised within a lawful camp".

She said the prosecution had "failed to bring evidence that these items must be [...] and can only have been, carried with an intention to commit the full offence of locking on, or to be used in connection with that offence".

Alex McColl, who represented three of the accused, told the court there was "simply insufficient or no evidence that these items were for use in anything other than a legitimate protest camp".

The prosecution had relied on the evidence of a police officer who said he had reviewed the items and considered them capable of being used to lock on.

The defendants were:

• Elizabeth Irving, 23, from Fulbourn, Cambridgeshire

• Arlan Jones, 25, from Hackney, east London

• Rose Armitage, 22, from Headingley, Leeds

• Shaunna Lee Rushton, 34, from Sheffield

• Simon Roscoe Belvins, 33, from Sheffield

• Max Connor, 31, from Headingley, Leeds

• Laurence Wright, 18, from Oxfordshire

• Huw Birch, 38, from Sheffield

• Philip Edward Ball, 54, from Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire

• Rosalind Monaghan, 23, from Leyburn, North Yorkshire

• Sean Irving, 27, from Hull

• Hannah Crowther, 25, from Hillingdon, north-west London

• Joseph Henry Faire, 23, from Sheffield

• Adam Woods, 28, from Winchester, Hampshire

• Heather Taylor, 23, from Shirrell Heath, Hampshire

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