Four eco zealots, including a man who stuck his face to the road when activists brought rush hour chaos to the heart of the country’s financial sector, face jail.
Matthew Tulley, 44, Ben Taylor, 38, George Burrow, 68 and Anthony Hill, 72, blocked traffic between Bishopsgate and Wormwood Street in the City of London on October 25, 2021.
They were convicted of causing a public nuisance by an Inner London Crown Court jury.
Judge Silas Reid released the Insulate Britain protesters on bail before sentencing on March 31.
The judge has sparked controversy by silencing activists by citing climate change as their motivation for blocking traffic in a series of recent lawsuits.
Pictured from left to right: British activists Ben Taylor, Anthony Hill, George Burrow and Matthew Tulley have been convicted of causing a public nuisance
On Friday, he jailed Dorset councilor Giovanna Lewis, 65, and horticulturist Amy Pritchard, 37, each for seven weeks after disobeying the order.
David Matthew, prosecutor, previously told jurors: ‘You are trying the defendants for what they did as part of a group called Insulate Britain.
‘At that time Insulate Britain blocked a number of roads.
“Roads had been blocked for a few weeks, so the police had officers on hand.”
Mr Matthew told the jurors that the group decided to target the City of London.
“In the Middle Ages it had walls around it. It has been the heart of the country’s financial sector.
‘It has its own police force, the City of London Police.
‘The importance of the area caught the attention of Insulate Britain.
‘Isolate Britain tried to block this part of central London.
Mr. Tulley managed to glue his head to the road.
“There’s nothing wrong with protesting. There’s nothing wrong with trying to get your point across. But even when done in a non-violent way, there are limits to what you can do.
‘You can imagine the diversions and the effect those diversions would have had on other parts of the road network.
“Bishopsgate is a major bus route.”
Mr Matthew told the jury that the number of bus passengers likely to be affected was between 5,600 and 8,500.
The eco zealots were convicted of causing public nuisance by an Inner London Crown Court jury (pictured)
Providing evidence City of London Police Sergeant Robert Payne said: ‘That intersection is one of the most important intersections in the City of London.
‘That route is used by most buses’
“There was a line of demonstrators with banners across the north-south runways.
“One protester had his face glued to the road. That was the greatest risk of harm to an individual at the time.
“A number of demonstrators had their hands or bodies glued to different lanes.”
‘I’ve never seen the intersection like this before. It was absolutely stuck. It was chaos. That hub is of paramount importance to the City of London. It was like I had never seen it before.’
Insulate Britain has demanded a national program to insulate all homes by 2030.
Taylor, of Bury, Lancs, Tulley, of Holmfirth, West Yorks, Burrow, of Kendal, Cumbria and Hill, also of Kendal, were all denied but convicted of causing a public nuisance.
