AN ENVIRONMENTAL activist from Dorset has been found not guilty following of causing criminal damage after gluing herself to a government building.
Emma Smart, from Weymouth, had been detained on April 14 of this year along with 24 other Extinction Rebellion activists following a protests at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy in London.
Smart, alongside eight other scientists, was charged with criminal damage after pasting scientific papers to the Government building and gluing themselves to the glass frontage.
She appeared before Weymouth Magistrates' Court on Friday, October 21 alongside four other Extinction Rebellion protestors and was cleared of the charge.
Ms Smart, 45, said: “Scientists have been sounding the alarm for decades but have been ignored by governments. However, with knowledge comes responsibility and more and more scientists are mobilising in civil disobedience around the world as we are running out of time.”
At the time of the incident, Ms Smart had said "in my heart I know I am on the right side of history. I will not be a bystander."
The other scientists tried at the same time as Ms Smart - Dr Stuart Capstick, Dr Abi Perrin, Dr Aaron Thierry and Dr Caroline Vincent were also cleared.
In a statement, Extinction Rebellion said: "The (court) ruled that there was no case to answer and that the scientists were exercising their rights to protest under the Human Rights Act. .
"The scientists were highlighting the danger posed by new oil and gas exploration and protesting against the government's inaction on the climate crisis in the face of irrefutable scientific evidence of the devastating and escalating impact climate breakdown is wreaking on the planet.
"We went to BEIS because, as the government department responsible for climate change, it should be leading the transition away from fossil fuels."
The remaining four scientists who took part in the action at BEIS were separately tried and found guilty in September by a district judge.
A spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion said: "The discrepancy between the outcome of the two trials highlights the arbitrariness of the legal system and the role that some judges play in undermining climate protest."
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