A freelance designer from Brighton is one of four people to have been jailed after trying to bring flights to a halt at Manchester airport last summer.
Indigo Rumeblow, 31, was jailed for two and a half years for her part in the plot to disrupt the summer holidays of thousands of people.
Rumbelow, originally from Wales, was jailed along with Daniel Knorr, 23, Leanorah Ward, 22, and Margaret Reid, 54, for conspiracy to intentionally cause a public nuisance.
Manchester Minshull Crown Court was told that they were all arrested near Manchester Airport in August last year.
A fifth person was arrested, Noah Crane, 19, of Birmingham. He was acquitted by a jury.
The four who were jailed were equipped with heavy-duty bolt cutters, angle grinders, glue, sand, Just Stop Oil high-visibility vests and a leaflet containing instructions to follow when interacting with police.
Ward also had a handwritten note which detailed the motive of the group to enter the airfield and to then contact the police to alert them of their activity.
They were planning to enter the airfield and stick themselves to the taxiway using the glue and sand.
The four defendants were found guilty at the end of a trial in February of conspiring to intentionally cause a public nuisance. A fifth defendant was acquitted.
Rumbelow, who was most recently living in London, was jailed for 30 months. Knorr, from Birmingham, was jailed for two years.
Ward, also from Birmingham, was jailed for 18 months – as was Reid, from Kendal, in Cumbria.
Each was ordered to pay £2,000 towards the costs of the prosecution.
When he passed sentence, Judge Jason MacAdam rejected the defendants’ claims that only “minimal delay, inconvenience, cost would have occurred” had their plan succeeded.
The judge said: “That claim repeatedly made by you all is plainly dishonest and completely contrary to all of your claims again repeatedly made, that you want to be held accountable.
“This was a highly organised, planned and determined conspiracy.
“If it had been successfully executed, the evidence which was either unchallenged or tested without success, demonstrated would have for some time resulted in chaos not just at Manchester Airport but to infrastructure around the airport and would have had a consequential effect on other airports.
“Many peoples flights to and from Manchester would have been delayed, rerouted or cancelled.”
Detective Chief Inspector Tony Platten, who led the investigation, said: “We know this disruption was deliberately planned to coincide with the height of the summer holidays, targeting the public and their families.
“It was vital that we prevented this from happening. People work hard for their time off and we have a duty to ensure they can enjoy it without fear or disruption.
“The group’s actions demonstrated a complete disregard for the impact on the lives of those travelling via Greater Manchester and I welcome the sentences handed down today.”
Rad Taylor, from Manchester Airport, said: “The safety and security of our passengers is always our number one concern.
“What these individuals were planning would not only have caused significant disruption for tens of thousands of passengers but also a significant safety risk.
“The potential consequences of that do not bear thinking about.”
In statements published by Just Stop Oil after the sentencing, the defendants said that the action was part of a campaign for a treaty to end the extraction and burning of oil, gas and coal by 2030.
Knorr, who had been remanded in custody before sentencing, said: “Since my imprisonment began, things have continued to get worse. The world still sleepwalks towards hell.
“People are taking action because they are terrified of what rising temperatures and food shortages will mean for them and for their kids.
“So as long as the climate crisis keeps getting worse, people will keep taking action, prison or not.”
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 acted because doing nothing is unthinkable and because the science is clear. We have no other option.”
Thanks for your action Indigo. Hope your unjust time away goes quickly
Oh yes Hugo, I am sure India and Tristam will keep an eye on them
I doubt it. It’s probably the first time she’s had to deal with some real consequences in her life!
Unjust ?
Excellent verdict and sentencing. But now wait for the appeals etc..
Laudable sentiments, deplorable actions.
I’m with you, Ann. It’s right to champion a good cause, but not by committing criminal activity. These people seem to fail to grasp this concept. The way they tried to justify blocking an ambulance is disgusting.
Benjamin
If true that Just Stop Oil justified stopping an ambulance, I would agree with you. If true.
However, the ambulance service themselves stated that they weren’t impeded in the M20 incident.
As for Waterloo Bridge, JSO weren’t blocking the side of the road that the ambulance was held up, it was the Metropolitan Police. And it was the police that were managing traffic. So that is contested.
As for criminal activity, I’m sure you would support those in Russia that commit Russian crimes to protest Russia’s war in Ukraine. I’m sure you would support women in Iran who break Iranian law to express their freedom. Both of those countries are limited democracies. They could vote! Women are free to vote in Iran. But voting has very limited impact. Breaking the law is the only option.
British democracy is on its last legs. There are councillors elected in May, elected by just 6 and 7% of the electorate. The UK government has a massive majority with the support of just 20% of the electorate. The next government is likely to be less. When Morgan McSweeney advised Liz Kendall in a Labour leadership she got just 4%. So he then advised Starmer by claiming to be “Corbynism without Corbyn”. It was a complete fabrication. Then Starmer stood in the UK general election on an anti-austerity platform. Again a complete fabrication. These fabrications limit democracy, people give up on democracy because they know lies.
It is entirely reasonable to see British democracy as highly flawed and very limited.
Climate change is an existential threat, especially for the young. Should blocking traffic be criminal? I don’t think it should. I’m sure you saw the stacked up cars in the Valencia flood last year that killed 220. Perhaps a bit of inconvenience today will save lives in the future.
Before we criticise political acts that are criminal, perhaps we should focus our attention on those in politics that are running democracy into oblivion and preventing democracy to function.
The seven people who blocked ambulance were convicted of blocking an ambulance so I think it’s less about contesting this point. They did, in fact, block an ambulance.
They’ve blocked ambulances in more places then just those two locations as well.
Sigh, either way, they are a very ineffectual group.
On your other point, while I respect your passion and agree that climate change poses an existential threat, I think it’s a false equivalence to compare JSO protestors in the UK to dissidents in Iran or Russia.
In those regimes, protestors are tortured or killed for speaking out. Here, even flawed, our democracy still allows protest, judicial review, elections, and media challenge.
If protesters break the law in the UK, the debate isn’t simply about whether the cause is just but whether the tactic is effective and proportionate.
If the public turns against the movement because ambulances or working people are disrupted, it harms the very cause they seek to advance; a sentimentality we see often in comments and discussions on JSO, even here.
So Robert.. you have no faith in British democracy, you think ‘the end is nigh’ and the solution you propose to all of this is anarchy. It’s clear we can all learn a lot from you.
Robert 2 days ago
It is well documented that Just Stop Oil did delay an ambulance. JSO have no justification to deny people getting to hospital appointments, work, airports and other activities, there actions have knock on effects that cause more harm than good. My daughter needed to get to GOSH, an appointment that had to be rearranged and waited for for three months. Seeing a child in agony is heartbreaking and having to wait for surgery then having to go through all that again all because of JSO decide to be idiots and disrupt people’s lives, isn’t doing them any favors.
Spraying buildings and the such like, blocking the highways etc is criminal activity and if you support these crimes that states a lot about you.
As for Russia and Iran, breaking the law maybe their only option, but if you hadn’t noticed, this country isn’t in conflict where people are in war zones etc, so completely different from morons who protest about OIL yet drive around in fuel guzzling 4×4’s.
British democracy is on its last legs, probably correct, but time will tell. Correct that councilors were elected. According to the data available, 40.8 % voted. Some miner by-elections took place where wards voted, therefore only those people voted not the whole city.
The UK government has a massive majority with the support of just 20% of the electorate, so what? The rest of the post is just the usual spin to gain points, surely you know every Government promise the world and deliver something different…
Climate change is an existential threat, especially for the young. Utter rubbish, did you not attend school?
The climate naturally changes all by itself, has done for billions of years, did you not learn about the ice-age and demise of the dinosaurs, certainly neither caused by human activity so lets not get suckered in in thinking we can stop the climate from changing because we can’t.
Can we do something about the immediate environment, yes we can.
Should blocking traffic be criminal? You don’t think it should, that’s your choice and opinion and I accept that.
I on the other hand think it should be a crime, people have been seriously effected in many different ways including having medical problems and the such like, businesses have suffered financial loses, disruptions to their lives that are more than a bit of inconvenience.
Her social media shows a seasoned international traveller even as she was taking part in protest aimed at disrupting other people’s travel. To me, that makes her a Grade A hypocrite.
While I’m sympathetic to carbon reduction and greener, cleaner energy, I find Just Stop Oil smug, self-righteous and arrogant. They have put people off supporting what should be a worthwhile cause.
Did Tarquin, Crispin, Arabella & Ophelia get off scot free?
You did a funny.
Just Stop Oil and their ilk – the occupy lot etc – just put off their erstwhile supporters with their entitled behaviour and juvenile antics, especially when they put lives at risk in the here and now.