Local Environmental Activist Could Face Jail for Heathrow Stunt
Roger Hallam used toy drones to try to shut down airport
Roger Hallam with a toy drone. Picture: Just Stop Oil
April 5, 2024
Roger Hallam, the co-founder of Just Stop Oil, who lives in the Putney area, is being sentenced at Isleworth Crown Court this Friday afternoon (5 April) after being found guilty of the common law offence of public nuisance.
In September 2019 he flew toy drones in the vicinity of Heathrow Airport in attempt to prevent flights leaving in an action on behalf of the Heathrow Pause campaign which is opposed to the Third Runway.
He will be appearing alongside Dr Larch Maxey and Mike Lynch-White who have already been warned by Judge Martin Edmunds that all sentencing options are on the table. Theoretically the offence could result in an unlimited jail sentence.
57-year-old Mr Hallam was convicted on a split decision by a jury last December. Mr. Lynch-White pleaded guilty in November 2023 whilst serving a 23-month prison sentence for another offence. Both defendants are appealing the verdict on the grounds of misdirection by the judge.
There was a total of 20 toy drone flights within the 5km exclusion zone between 14-18 September 2019. Video footage of the flights was live streamed and provided to the police and airport authorities. The two men say that the drones, which were flown only at head height, posed no risk to aircraft or passengers but the airport was required to suspend all flights if it followed its existing protocols. Heathrow Pause says it had communicated its detailed plans to Heathrow Airport and the police over a month in advance, to allow them to prepare. In the event, no flights were cancelled.
Mr Hallam said , “Humankind is heading for indescribable suffering if we continue to put carbon emissions into the atmosphere. When I die, I want to know I haven’t lived a lie. I cannot pretend I don’t know what needs to happen. Thousands of people need to create mass economic disruption and go to prison in order to force governments to protect their people and enact legislation that will rapidly reduce carbon emissions. Going to prison, losing your job, losing your partner isn’t the end of the world. What is the end of the world, is the end of the world.”
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