Insulate Britain protester jailed for stopping traffic on M4

Stephen Pritchard has said he will not stop taking part in disruptive action, as a matter of "conscience"

An Insulate Britain protester has been jailed for five weeks for obstructing the motorway, causing huge disruption.

About 10,000 drivers were affected by the actions of Stephen Pritchard, from Bath, and three others on the M4 near Heathrow, west London, in October 2021.

The defendants glued themselves to the tarmac near Junction 3 stopping traffic flow in both directions for two hours.

At Inner London Crown Court, 63-year-old Pritchard was convicted by a jury of causing a nuisance to the public.

His co-defendants, former probation officer Ruth Cook, 71, gardener Roman Paluch-Machnik, 29, and carpenter Oliver Rock, 42, were each given six-week sentences, suspended for 18 months.

The three were also ordered to do 100 hours of community service.

Judge Silas Reid told Pritchard, a former parish councillor, he was being jailed because he previously told the court he would not stop taking part in disruptive action, as a matter of "conscience".

The other defendants previously said they had been deterred from future disruptive protest action.

Drivers were left stuck in long queues as a result of the protest

Judge Reid told Pritchard: "It is not appropriate for me to suspend the inevitable sentence... you will serve up to half of your sentence in prison."

Speaking to all four defendants, he said: "None of you have shown any remorse for your actions and in fact wear them with pride."

However he added the "appropriate sentence" would normally be "in the region of 12 months imprisonment", but this was reduced by the protesters' aim of bringing attention to the climate crisis.

He previously banned the defendants from mentioning this motive in front of the jurors but allowed them to mention it during sentencing because "motivation is relevant to sentence" but not to whether they committed the crime of public nuisance.

'Difficult decision'

Judge Reid acknowledged that "protest has an important history in this country" but "the right to protest does not give you the right to disrupt the lives of thousands of people".

Insulate Britain said this was the first time climate activists in the UK had been found guilty of the common law offence.

Speaking to the PA news agency afterwards, Cook, Rock and Paluch-Machnik said it had been difficult for them to promise not to take part in future disruption.

Cook, a grandmother from Frome, Somerset, said it had been "one of the most difficult decisions I have ever had to make" but she questioned "what it would achieve for me to be in prison".

The trio suggested they would modify their protest tactics in response to accumulating court action against other Insulate Britain and Just Stop Oil members.

Last month, Pritchard received a short jail sentence for defying a court order that prevented him and four others from protesting on the M25.

High Court injunctions were put in place after Insulate Britain's road blockades last year.