Animal-rights activists convicted after spraying paint on Big Ben
Three animal-rights activists were found guilty of criminal damage after a one-day trial for spraying paint on Big Ben last September.
Rowan Cooper-Gritten, 28, from Woking Close, Wandsworth, Rachelle Steele, 46, from Waltham Forest, and Tim Speers, 38, from Hackney, were found guilty of causing criminal damage at City of London Magistrates Court yesterday.
Cooper-Gritten was fined ÂŁ1,300, Steele and Speers will return for sentencing in September.
A fourth defendant, Alex Bourke, 62, from Hillsborough Court, Hackney, was found to have no case to answer and had all charges dropped.
The sentencing comes after the activists, who belong to Animal Rising -previously known as Animal Rebellion– sprayed white paint to represent milk on the walls and gates outside Big Ben on September 7, 2022.
The protest was staged as part of the groups Plant-Based Future campaign, calling for a rapid shift from the government to a plant-based food system to lower emissions, land-use, water-use and biodiversity loss.
Louisa Hillwood, 29, an Animal Rising spokeswoman, said: “I’m hugely disappointed that the judiciary is still choosing to side with the criminal Government, and with each ruling against peaceful protestors they are only losing more legitimacy.
“We know that our current food system is causing serious harm to a whole host of animals, captive and wild, human and non-human.
“The dairy industry is built on the exploitation of a mammal’s reproductive system, with females artificially inseminated and their children separated from them shortly after birth.
“As a woman, I can’t even begin to imagine what it must be like for these poor individuals to have this repeatedly done to them.
“If we change our food system for the better, we stand a chance at saving the lives of millions of people.
“For this reason, I feel obliged to continue taking nonviolent civil resistance against our government that has betrayed us all.”
Pictured top: The white paint covering walls and gates outside Big Ben, sprayed by Animal Rising activists (Picture: Animal Rising)
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