Three members of the Just Stop Oil campaign, who were being held by Warwickshire police, were taken to Coventry Court on Monday morning. Katheryn Dowds, 28, Jake Handling, 27, and Josh Smith, 29, pleaded guilty to aggravated assault at the Kingsbury oil terminal after their lawyer did not appear to be advising them, according to a campaign source. The Dowds were fined 7 327 and Handling and Smith were fined £ 150 each. All were later released, only to be arrested again immediately and re-arrested by police for violating a Supreme Court order banning demonstrations at the Kingsbury site, Just Stop Oil said. “It is believed that they will appear tomorrow in Birmingham County Court or Coventry in connection with this charge,” the campaign said. In Essex, James Skeet, 34, and Stephanie Eilet, 27, were detained after pleading guilty to aggravated assault and breach of bail in a Chelmsford court appearance Saturday. “Judges have heard that both Skeet and Aylett have been arrested several times in Essex since the riots began in the early hours of April 1,” the force said in a statement. Both were taken to jail by police on Monday, Just Stop Oil said. Their cases were due to be heard on Wednesday. Just Stop Oil has been organizing immediate action, including massive breaches, tunnels and blockades, at oil terminals and locations around the Midlands and the south-east of England since April 1 in a bid to disrupt fossil fuel supplies. They have pledged to continue until the government agrees to a moratorium on new fossil fuel projects. On Saturday, Catherine Maclean, from Hurstpierpoint in West Sussex, became the first person to be convicted of participating in the Just Stop Oil campaign after pleading guilty in Chelmsford court. Just Stop Oil said that so far almost 1,000 arrests have been made in connection with the campaign. Nine other campaign supporters were released without bail after appearing in Coventry court on Saturday. Six pleaded not guilty, one pleaded guilty and two did not plead not guilty, according to the campaign. Valero Energy, the Texas-based company owned by Kingsbury, has ruled in favor of a Supreme Court ruling banning protest activity at any of its six UK facilities. “The order gives arrest power outside the terminal and at the intersections of the roads leading to the zone,” Warwickshire police said. A Just Stop Oil spokesman said: “The courts are complicit in supporting a government that is deliberately fueling climate change and killing millions. “The supporters of Just Stop Oil acted according to their conscience. Just as the suffragettes and the riders of freedom did, they chose not to be passers-by in the face of the catastrophic and continuing injustice of the climate collapse. “Some politicians and media experts have called the request of Just Stop Oil and its supporters naive. “But what is really naive is the continuing belief of the political establishment and the media that young people will lie down and die without resisting.”
