Insulate Britain activists found guilty over London roadblock

Three Insulate Britain activists have been found guilty of causing a public nuisance by a jury for a two-hour sit-down blockade of traffic.

The three, Helen Redfern, Simon Reding and Catherine Rennie-Nash, were banned from talking about the climate crisis or the role of insulation in cutting greenhouse gas emissions as they presented their case to the jury at Inner London crown court. The same restriction has been placed on other Insulate Britain defendants in previous trials for public nuisance relating to peaceful protests taken as part of the group’s campaign for better insulation in UK homes.

Redfern, 58, Reding, 50 and Rennie-Nash, 71, were found guilty of public nuisance by the jury on Monday. The three had been part of a demonstration at Bishopsgate in the City of London on 25 October 2021 in which they sat down and blockaded traffic.

David Matthew, prosecuting, told the jury the demonstrators were removed after two hours. The whole area was reopened an hour later after experts cleared solvents from the streets which had been used to remove the superglue with which some…