A retired doctor has been found guilty of obstructing the railway during a climate protest, after jurors told the judge they were struggling to come to a verdict “as a matter of conscience”.
Dr Diana Warner, 65, told the Guardian she believed the jury had been unfairly “bullied” into the verdict by the judge, who responded that jurors should try the case “on the evidence, not your conscience”.
Warner, a GP from Bristol, wore hi-vis clothes and waved an orange flag as she held up a 400-metre-long freight train in protest over Drax power station in North Yorkshire, often called the UK’s single biggest carbon emitter, on 14 December 2021.
She had been due to appear at the high court that day over a previous Insulate Britain protest that held up the M25 but instead carried out the action to raise further awareness of the climate emergency.
In a video of the action played to the court, Warner said she had carried out the protest because Drax was the “most ridiculous power station on Earth”, adding that the plant, which burns wood pellets, was “chomping through so many trees”.
About an hour after the jury was sent out in the case, jurors presented a note to Judge Kearl KC, the recorder of Leeds, asking: “As a matter of conscience we are finding it difficult to come to a verdict. What should we do?”
Judge Kearl told them: “You have all taken an oath or affirmation to try this case on the evidence, not your conscience. If you are unable to abide by your oath or affirmation you should let me know.”
Warner told the Guardian that the jurors had the right to acquit her based on their conscience, citing a legal principle called jury equity, in which the jury can vote not guilty even when they think the defendant has committed the crime because they believe the law is unjust.
This came into focus last year when another climate protester, Trudi Warner (no relation to Diana Warner), was accused of contempt of court when she held up a sign outside the inner London high court reading: “Jurors, you have an absolute right to acquit a defendant according to your conscience.”
Diana Warner said she felt the jury in her trial had been on her side, with some of them smiling at her as they left for the jury room. “At the end, when they had heard my evidence, and especially once they posed the question to the judge, I had a strong impression that they agreed with me,” she said.
She believed the jury’s good faith had been “abused” by the judge. “I personally would call it bullying … bullying by the judge who was acting on behalf of the state.”
Warner added: “He was telling them to do something that’s immoral in my opinion.”
She said she would not be obstructing traffic again as “I don’t know that that type of protest is going to make the change” and her “heart wouldn’t be in it any more”, but she said she still felt the country was “not addressing the emergency and the catastrophe that we are going to face”.
“I can’t afford to be done campaigning, and those who are not campaigning really need to review what they’re doing. The stakes are incredibly high.”
Warner was bailed and will be sentenced on 25 March.
