A 15-month jail sentence imposed on a climate protester who blocked one lane on the Sydney Harbour Bridge with a truck has been quashed.
Deanna Maree CoCo, 32, was issued with a 12-month conditional release order on Wednesday after District Court Judge Mark Williams heard she had been initially imprisoned on false information from NSW Police.
CoCo and three others, including Wollombi activist Alan Glover, drove a Hino truck onto the Harbour Bridge in morning peak hour on April 13, 2022, as part of an environmental protest against climate inaction for Fireproof Australia.
Climbing onto the roof of the vehicle alongside Glover, the pair lit orange flares and livestreamed the protest.
Two others, Karen Fitzgibbon and Jay Larbalestier, sat on the ground in front of the truck and superglued their hands to the roadway.
On Wednesday, Judge Williams heard an appeal by CoCo of the 15-month jail sentence imposed in the Local Court last December.
He noted police had included a "false fact" and a "false assertion" in their case against CoCo that an ambulance with flashing sirens and lights had been impeded from crossing the bridge to an emergency because of the protest.
Crown prosecutor Isabella Maxwell-Williams unsuccessfully argued CoCo should be incarcerated because of her lengthy history of illegal protest which included supergluing herself to an intersection in St Kilda as part of the Extinction Australia group.
She said the protest was not peaceful, in that it affected many hundreds of Sydneysiders and put the community as well as the activists themselves in danger.
Judge Williams noted that these past matters had all been dealt with through fines or bonds without any convictions.
He also said she had showed remorse for her actions and was channelling her diagnosed climate anxiety into productive community work such as volunteering to help flood victims in Lismore.
With her jail term quashed, CoCo cried tears of joy in court with her supporters cheering her on outside of Downing Centre.
She remains convicted for two charges of resisting police and using an unauthorised explosive.
At the same time, Judge Williams heard an appeal by 61-year-old Glover of an 18-month community correction order.
The judge quashed convictions for Glover and imposed a 12-month conditional release order, hearing that this was his first criminal offence and the charges had resulted in him being stood down from working as a volunteer firefighter.
The court heard Glover was a man of "considerable bravery" having risked his life battling the 2019/2020 Black Summer bushfires.
Australian Associated Press
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