Activist who planned to spray orange paint on Taylor Swift’s jet spared jail

Two Just Stop Oil activists who sought to spray orange paint on Taylor Swift’s private jet have been spared jail.

Jennifer Kowalski, 29, and Cole Macdonald, 23, had been targeting the pop star’s jet at Stansted Airport in Essex but the two planes they sprayed on June 20 last year belonged to an insurance firm and an investment group.

Judge Alexander Mills, sentencing at Chelmsford Crown Court, said: “I’ve no doubt the reason you switched to the other jets was because you had been spotted.”

He said that an aircraft refueller described how he honked the horn of his vehicle and “described you seemingly being triggered into action”.

The pair were found guilty of the criminal damage of the two planes following an earlier trial at the same court.

Kowalski, of Dumbarton in Scotland, who had previous convictions over protests in Scotland, was sentenced on Monday to five months in prison suspended for 12 months.

Macdonald, of Brighton, East Sussex, was sentenced to six weeks in prison suspended for eight months.

The judge said Kowalski’s actions were “affected by your neurodivergence”, and also noted Macdonald’s autism diagnosis.

He told them: “The actions of the two of you were all about publicity – both for Just Stop Oil and for yourselves.”

He continued: “What greater publicity could there be than anything related to Taylor Swift.

“That’s what you hoped to achieve.”

The pair, who each brought a large bag to court in case they received jail time, hugged in the dock after the judge passed suspended sentences.

Kowalski must complete up to 30 programme requirement days during her suspended sentence order and was fined £480.

Macdonald must complete up to 20 days of a rehabilitation activity.

Both defendants were excluded from Stansted Airport, unless with a valid ticket to travel, for the duration of their suspended sentence orders.

Their trial was told they breached the airport’s perimeter fence with an angle grinder then took turns spraying two planes with paint from fire extinguishers and filming it.

Laura O’Brien, for Kowalski, said Kowalski had a “conscientious motive” and the protest – in an area of the airport for private aviation – was “intended to have a minimal impact on the public”.

“This wasn’t about grounding commercial flights, this wasn’t about stopping people going on holidays, it was about taking a message to a symbol of the climate crisis,” she said.

Rebecca Martin, for Macdonald, said that “any activism she takes part in in future she intends to be entirely lawful”.

She said that Macdonald’s 11 days in custody after her arrest and on a curfew after bail had been “very salutary”.

David Barr, prosecuting, said invoices showed the direct cost of cleaning the two aircraft was £12,576.

He said a further £24,000 was spent on consultation and inspection by engineers who selected the right chemical to use to remove the substance.

Repairs to the perimeter fence cost £19,234, he said, though the defendants did not face a further charge of criminal damage over this.

A group of supporters waited outside the court building during the sentencing hearing, having been refused access by security staff.

Ms O’Brien, for Kowalski, urged the judge to relax a restriction that “only immediate family or partners are to be permitted” to come inside, and said a family friend had travelled from the Isle of Wight to show support.

But the judge said the restriction had “come from the resident judge in light of the intentions of those who may be entering the building today”.

He said he was “not prepared to depart from it (the restriction)”.

Kowalski said outside court afterwards: “It’s a very bittersweet moment because we know this could have been a lot worse and people have got a lot worse happen to them for a lot, lot less.

“But we also are very humbled in our actions knowing that we were acting on conscience on what we thought was the right thing in the face of a collapsing climate which is something that wasn’t ever really discussed in the court, which is an issue that was silenced.

“This is something we need to keep talking about.”