FOUR climate activists were jailed today for planning a peaceful action at Manchester Airport that never even took place.

The Just Stop Oil (JSO) activists were arrested in the early hours of August 5 2024 as they left a bed and breakfast to head to the airport carrying bolt cutters, angle grinders and glue.

They were charged with conspiracy to commit a public nuisance and held on remand until February when bail was granted during trial. 

The group planned to take action as part of the Oil Kills uprising, a global campaign targeting 31 airports to demand a fossil fuel treaty to end the extraction and burning of oil, gas and coal by 2030.

During the trial, the defendants freely admitted that they were planning to access the airport via the perimeter fence and then, if possible, three would glue themselves on to the taxiway. 

At Manchester Crown Court, Indigo Rumbelow was sentenced to 30 months, Daniel Knorr to 24 months, and Ella Ward and Margaret Reid each for 18 months. 

They were all ordered to pay £2,000 in costs and immediately sent back to prison at the end of proceedings.

Prior to sentencing, Ms Rumbelow said: “Each day I have sat in prison, the ice melts faster, the fires burn wilder and the extinction rate climbs steeper.

“If the courts want law and order they need to start prosecuting those who extract and burn oil and gas while knowing that it will lead to the deaths of billions of people.

Ms Ward said: “I’m not worried about my sentence, I’m worried about living in a world where crop failure means I can’t put food on the table.

“I’m worried about living in a world where billions suffer and die for a small number of rich people to get richer.

“I acted because doing nothing is unthinkable and because the science is clear. We have no other option: we have to just stop oil.”

Calum Macintyre, a member of the Norwegian group People Against Fossil Fuels who joined the Oil Kills campaign last summer, described how his experience was starkly different.

“We broke through the fence at Oslo airport and glued ourselves to the taxiway,” he said.

“Afterwards, the police took our details and drove us to the train station in order to get home. No night in the cells, no months on remand, no threat of years long prison sentences. Two of us have just been to court and were fined.

“Compared to the treatment of our friends in Britain — many of whom have been sitting on remand since last summer — the difference could not be more stark. It is terrifying to see the erosion of people’s civil liberties in Britain.”

Senior Crown Prosecutor for CPS North West Nicola Wells said: “Whenever the right to protest crosses into criminality, whether by causing a public nuisance or distress to members of the public, we will not hesitate to prosecute these cases.”

Throughout JSO’s history, activists have faced 3,300 arrests and 180 imprisonments.