July 22, 2024, 6:18 p.m.
The mother of a jailed Just Stop Oil activist complains her daughter will miss her brother’s wedding after blocking the M25. 
Photo: Just Stop Oil/Alamy
The mother of a Just Stop Oil campaigner has complained her daughter will miss her brother’s wedding after being jailed for blocking the M25 motorway.
Cathy Nelson has protested against her daughter Cressida Gethin’s four-year prison sentence, which “means she will not be at her brother’s wedding next summer”.
Speaking outside court after the 22-year-old was jailed last week, Ms Nelson said her daughter had tried “polite means to protest, persuade and bring about change… but found that no one paid attention”.
The mother said Gethin had “no choice” but to take action and block the highway alongside the four other activists, who have been dubbed the “Whole Truth Five” by Just Stop Oil.
The quintet agreed to disrupt traffic by having protesters climb onto gantries above the motorway for four consecutive days in November 2022, the court heard.
The campaign has since launched a petition and written to the attorney general demanding an “immediate end to the imprisonment of courageous, non-violent political prisoners.”
“Our politicians, our judiciary and our energy companies should be shocked and deeply embarrassed by the way the court delivered its version of justice today.”
⚖️ Listen to Cressie’s mother Cathy speak in court after 22-year-old Cressie was sentenced to 4 years in prison… pic.twitter.com/ZsC5lm4tgQ
— Just Stop Oil (@JustStop_Oil) July 22, 2024
Cressida Gethin (left) with Emma Mani and Alexander Wilcox outside Ealing Magistrates Court, charged with causing a public nuisance after a Just Stop Oil protest, Friday July 22, 2022. 
Photo: Alamy
Learn more: Just Stop Oil threatens to disrupt summer holiday plans with latest airport campaign
Learn more: Two Just Stop Oil protesters released after ‘causing £52,000 damage’ by attempting to spray paint Taylor Swift’s private jet
Paying tribute to her daughter, Ms Nelson said: “She has always been unable to stand idly by when she sees injustice. She has the courage of a lion and the moral compass to step in when she sees something wrong.”
She continued: “Our politicians, our judiciary and our energy companies should be shocked and deeply embarrassed by the way the court delivered its version of justice today.”
Gethin was sentenced along with four other Just Stop Oil protesters, including the co-founder, in what are believed to be the longest sentences ever handed down for a peaceful protest.
She was jailed with Roger Hallam, 58, Daniel Shaw, 38, Louise Lancaster, 58, and Lucia Whittaker De Abreu, 35.
Hallam, co-founder of Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion, was sentenced to five years in prison while the other four defendants were each sentenced to four years in prison.
The sentences are longer than those handed down to fellow Just Stop Oil protesters Morgan Trowland and Marcus Decker, who scaled the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge at the Dartford Crossing in October 2022.
The appeal court was then told that Trowland, sentenced to three years in prison, and Decker, sentenced to two years and seven months in prison, had received the longest sentences ever handed down for a peaceful protest case in modern times.
Surrey Police officers remove a Just Stop Oil activist from a gantry suspended above the M25 motorway between junctions 12 and 13 on November 8, 2022. 
Photo: Alamy
Prosecutors claimed the M25 protests, in which 45 people climbed the gantries, resulted in economic costs of at least £765,000, while the cost to the Metropolitan Police was more than £1.1m.
They are also said to have caused more than 50,000 hours of vehicle delays, affecting more than 700,000 vehicles, and left the M25 “compromised” for more than 120 hours.
A police officer suffered concussion and bruising after being knocked off his motorbike in a traffic jam caused by one of the protests on 9 November 2022, prosecutor Jocelyn Ledward KC said at his sentencing hearing at Southwark Crown Court on Thursday.
The five defendants participated in a Zoom call on November 2, 2022, during which discussions took place about the planned protests, based on “what was expressly said and what could be inferred,” and aimed to recruit others to the protests during the call, Ms Ledward told the court.
The defendants were found guilty by a jury of conspiracy to intentionally cause a public nuisance, contrary to section 78 of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 and section 1 of the Criminal Law Act 1977, on July 11.
The defendants, dubbed the “Whole Truth Five” by Just Stop Oil on social media, took the stand to confirm their names in court and shouted “We love you” from the dock immediately after the sentences were handed down.
