Gateshead grandmother Helen Redfern has avoided a prison sentence after her conviction for taking part in an Insulate Britain protest.
Helen, 58, took part in a protest in October 2021 where she glued herself to the road in London's Bishopsgate, helping to cause hours of disruption to a busy road. She was subsequently charged and convicted of causing a public nuisance after a trial at Inner London Crown Court.
On Thursday April 20 she was sentenced - and avoided jail time, unlike some of her fellow protesters. Instead she was given a three week sentence, suspended for 18 months. She said she was deeply relieved.
Speaking to ChronicleLive, she said: "I'm still in shock to be honest. We were in court all day. There were seven of us and we had to listen to the judge telling us how naughty we had been. Two of the seven went to prison for two and a half weeks. I was really shocked to avoid any community hours, but I think the judge listened to that fact I have in terms of caring responsibilities and the business.
"I was very relieved, but there's a sense of guilt that other people were punished more harshly than I was. But the next day I was out there with Extinction Rebellion for the Big One protest. The last few months have really taken a toll though."
Environmental campaigner Helen, who runs the the Green Heart Collective in Team Valley, had never previously broken the law, but conscious of the rapidly escalating climate emergency, she glued her hands to the road in the heart of London's Bishopsgate during the rush hour on October 25, 2021.
She has previously spoken of her motivation for protesting - something she was, unusually, unable to mention during trial as the Judge Silas Reid said any defendant who did so would be in contempt of court. Ahead of the sentencing, she said: "We have always done what we can to help the environment but I guess we got to a point where we realised that the little things we were doing on a personal level were not going to change the world.
"So we started getting involved in Extinction Rebellion locally and attending national events too. I had already been arrested once at one of these."
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