Three Greenpeace volunteers have been given a conditional discharge at Hull Crown Court. The three were also ordered to pay compensation each for their part in an action to close Sheffield incinerator after it was identified as the worst incinerator in England, breaking its legal pollution limits 156 times in two years.
The three had been acquitted of criminal damage by a jury at Sheffield Crown Court on the 2nd December for painting the words 'toxic crime' on the plant's chimney but convicted of a second charge of criminal damage to a door at the base of the chimney. The verdicts followed a direction to the jury from the judge Mr Justice Bentley that deprived the volunteers of their defence of taking action to stop the plant committing the crime of breaking pollution laws The defendants are still considering appealing against the judges' summing up.
Rachel Murray one of the three volunteers who occupied the 75-metre incinerator chimney for three days in May 2001 said,
"We still believe what we did was right and we wouldn't have done anything differently. We are proud to have shut down the plant, if only for a short time and stopped it churning out poisonous gases over the people of Sheffield. Lots of people in Sheffield have supported us and have continued the fight to stop this incinerator from polluting the city."
The three Greenpeace volunteers are Rachel Murray 29, from Glasgow, Huw Williams 35, from Buxton and Chris Holden, 25, from Northamptonshire.
Notes to editors:
The three volunteers were also ordered to pay costs towards the prosecution's legal case.
Further information:
Contact:
Greenpeace press office on 020 7865 8255
