The activist group staged demonstrations in 2019, during which Gail Bradbrook smashed a plate-glass window at the Department for Transport.
The co-founder of Extinction Rebellion, Gail Bradbrook, has been found guilty of criminal damage to the Department for Transport (DfT) following a four-year legal saga. She was accused of causing £27,500 in damage to the DfT building in Westminster by smashing a plate-glass window during a protest in London in 2019.
The Extinction Rebellion activist group staged prolonged demonstrations in April and October 2019 and September 2020. During these protests, they blocked entrances, halted traffic, glued themselves to buildings and roads, defaced a statue of Winston Churchill, and disrupted newspaper printing.
During the October protest, Bradbrook climbed onto an entrance canopy at the DfT’s headquarters and broke a reinforced security glass pane. The cost of replacing it came to £27,500.
Bradbrook was convicted on Wednesday after a two-day trial at Isleworth Crown Court. Her first trial, held in July, was aborted after the judge told Bradbrook to stop speaking about her motivations in smashing the DfT window, but she defied the order. She argued that breaking the glass had been legally necessary if government officials understood the reasons for her actions.
At the second trial, Judge Martin Edmunds warned Bradbrook that she could risk being charged with contempt of court if she did not comply with the order. After the verdict, Bradbrook said she was “at peace with it” and admitted she had no defense in law. She argued that authorities should be prosecuting the politicians and corporations causing criminal damage on a “planetary scale.”
The prosecution argued that there was no lawful excuse for Bradbrook’s actions that caused damage to the DfT building. The court also heard the judge say that Bradbrook’s case was not about the climate crisis principles but about breaking a window.
Following the incident in 2019, Bradbrook’s trial was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and a political row over the acquittal of Black Lives Matter protesters in 2022. None of the defendants denied their involvement but claimed that the presence of the statue was a hate crime and therefore not an offense to remove it.
Reacting to the acquittal, Downing Street said vandalism “remained a crime” and expected police to take it seriously. The government stated that it was unacceptable to destroy public property and would fix any loopholes in the law when necessary.
Green Party MP Caroline Lucas expressed her support for Bradbrook on social media, stating that “principled people” were being criminalized for taking climate and nature action. Bradbrook has been released on bail and awaits a sentencing hearing on December 18, where she could face 18 months in jail, but a suspended sentence may be an option.