Two climate protesters are jailed for blocking traffic lanes on a major Melbourne highway, causing major rush hour delays.
Deanna ‘Violet’ Coco, 33, from New South Wales, and Bradley Homewood, 51, from Williamstown, yesterday pleaded guilty to two counts of public nuisance by obstructing motorists and obstructing police and workers of emergency services.
Both were sentenced to 21 days in prison.
His co-accused, Joseph Zammit, 68, of Melbourne, also pleaded guilty to the same charges.
New South Wales woman Deanna ‘Violet’ Coco, 33, has been charged with two counts of disorderly conduct after blocking two lanes of traffic on a major Melbourne highway.
Two Extinction Rebellion protesters have been sentenced to 21 days in jail for blocking traffic
He was released on bail on the conditions that he not attend illegal protests or take illegal actions during a protest and not associate with Coco and Homewood.
Members of the environmental action group Extinction Rebellion parked a truck on the West Gate Bridge at around 7.45am yesterday and climbed onto it, unfurling banners saying “declare a climate emergency” and “climate collapse has begun”.
Police alleged they lit flares while on top of the truck.
The protest caused a traffic jam with three lanes into the city blocked and delays that stretched for about 30 kilometers.
“The ramifications of his actions caused enormous catastrophic inconvenience and delay to thousands of members of the public,” a police prosecutor told the court.
Officers used a crane to arrest and safely remove the trio at 9.45am after they refused to get off the truck. After the reopening of the lanes, significant traffic delays persisted.
Zammit defended his group’s action in Melbourne Magistrates Court, saying they were concerned about people’s future.
“What they suffered today is nothing compared to what will happen in the future,” he said.
“What we’re really doing is a service to the community.”
Officers used a crane to arrest and safely remove the trio at 9.45am on Tuesday after they refused to get off the truck parked on the West Gate Bridge (pictured).
But Magistrate Andrew McKenna rebuked the activists, saying the actions were difficult to justify.
‘This is not about anarchy. “This is an orderly society, in the proper democratic way,” he said.
“Whether someone has a worthy cause or not, one has to work within the law to promote it and if you don’t, you risk being punished.”
Homewood said he was forced to act after being driven to a state of despair by the existential crisis facing climate collapse.
“I feel like I have no choice,” he said.
‘I have tried all the conventional campaign methods and nothing has worked.
“We see what we do as a proportionate response to the inaction of the world’s governments.”
He defended his actions by saying that nonviolent protests were vilified at the time, but that activists were vindicated in the future.
McKenna said the protesters would have produced the opposite reaction to what they wanted among the majority of the community.
Coco has had previous run-ins with police in Victoria, New South Wales and Western Australia over her activism.
She was jailed for 13 days after blocking a lane of the Sydney Harbor Bridge during the 2022 morning rush hour.
Police accused Coco of making a career out of being a public nuisance.
While imprisoning Coco, McKenna said that she was completely indifferent to the victims of her actions.
“She basically put her own interests and her own cause before the interests of others in the community, many more people than herself and two other people,” he said.
Zammit is due back in court on April 16.