Just Stop Oil protesters bid to challenge jail terms refused

(l-r) Marcus Decker and Morgan Trowland were found guilty of causing a public nuisance following the week-long trial at Basildon Crown Court in April

Two Just Oil protesters who scaled the Dartford Crossing bridge have been refused permission to challenge their jail sentences at the Supreme Court.

Morgan Trowland, 40, was jailed for three years and Marcus Decker, 34, for two years for causing a public nuisance.

The pair caused gridlock traffic after they scaled the bridge for almost 40 hours last October.

A hearing in London decided their jail terms were "not excessive".

Protesters appealed against the longevity of the sentences in July, but judges refused to grant permission for the two men to take their case to the UK's highest court.

In their July ruling, the judges acknowledged the "long and honourable tradition of civil disobedience on conscientious grounds" and that the sentences handed to Trowland and Decker went "well beyond previous sentences imposed for this type of offending".

But at a hearing on Thursday, Lady Chief Justice Lady Carr said the jail terms were "not excessive" and the sentences met a "legitimate" aim of deterring others from such offending.

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

Lady Carr added: "The sentences should not be seen as having a 'chilling effect' on the right to peaceful protest or to assembly more generally - deterrence and 'chilling effect' are not the same.

However, Daniel Friedman KC, representing the activists, had previously argued their jail terms were "the longest ever handed down in a case of non-violent protest in this country in modern times".

But judges said the jail terms reflected "Parliament's will" under new laws carried out under the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act.

The activists were on the bridge for about 37 hours

The new act introduced a fault-based public nuisance offence for what will include non-violent protest behaviour with a maximum sentence of 10 years' imprisonment.

The crossing was reopened after about 41 hours

Structural engineer Trowland, of Islington, north London, and private tutor Decker, of no fixed address, denied causing a public nuisance, arguing it was a protest.

The trial, at Basildon Crown Court in April, heard the protesters ascended to a point close to 200ft above the road and unfurled a "giant Just Stop Oil banner" and "rigged up hammocks".

Essex Police said those affected by the disruption included a "heavily pregnant woman who needed urgent medical help".

Another person missed the funeral of their best friend of 35 years, the force said, and a business lost more than £160,000 in earnings.