Just Stop Oil: Chris Packham speaks out against protesters' jail terms

Broadcaster Chris Packham said the jail sentences handed to Morgan Trowland and Marcus Decker were "onerous"

Naturalist Chris Packham said the "inconvenience" of traffic jam disruption needed to be put in perspective after two Just Stop Oil activists lost their High Court appeal.

Morgan Trowland, 40, and Marcus Decker, 34, were convicted of causing a public nuisance for scaling the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge in October.

Judges said their jail terms - of three years and two years and seven months respectively - were "not excessive".

Packham said the sentences were wrong.

"This does seem to be a particularly onerous and vindictive punishment and we see far lesser sentences handed out to crimes that most people would think would be far more dangerous.

"Just Stop Oil don't hurt people. They are scattering paint and litter and so on but there are no human victims of that," the broadcaster told BBC Essex.

(l-r) Marcus Decker and Morgan Trowland were told in April that they would spend half of their sentences in prison

Packham, who visited Decker in prison, said those in the Just Stop Oil movement were "terrified" at the climate crisis and urged the public to keep things in perspective.

"Our temperature has now got to the point where our planet is boiling, that's the term that's been used by the UN secretary general [Antonio] Guterres.

"People are losing their lives, they're losing their livelihoods all over the world and the inconvenience faced in a traffic jam, albeit significant if you do miss those funerals, we need to keep a perspective between that and what's going on in other parts of the world and what is likely to be going on here very, very soon," he said.

Protesters gathered outside the Royal Courts of Justice before and during the appeal hearing

Trowland, of Islington in north London, and Decker, of no fixed address, climbed the bridge's cables at about 04:00 BST on 17 October and were eventually brought down using a cherry picker crane at about 17:30 the following day.

They were found guilty of causing public nuisance by a jury at Basildon Crown Court in April.

The protesters' lawyers made a bid to challenge the "extraordinary length" of their sentences.

But Lady Justice Sue Carr, sitting with Mrs Justice Johanna Cutts and Mrs Justice Justine Thornton, said: "Whilst the protest was non-violent as such, it had extreme consequences for many, many members of the public."

Laura O'Brien, Decker's lawyer from Hodge Jones and Allen, said they were "shocked and saddened" at the appeal rejection and were considering their options going forward.