FORTY-seven Insulate Britain activists who caused chaos on the Surrey stretch of the M25 in the autumn of 2021 have been convicted of a variety of offences, following a lengthy and complex police investigation.

The defendants were arrested and charged following their direct-action protests at various locations between junctions 6, Godstone, and 14, Poyle, of the motorway in September 2021.

Surrey Police officers made numerous arrests at each of the protests, including 35 arrests on September 13, 35 on September 15, 33 arrests on September 17 and 24 arrests on September 21.

Of these, 54 people were charged with 133 offences, with 47 subsequently found guilty following a series of hearings and trials which have taken place over the last few months.

The activists were convicted of a variety of offences, including wilful obstruction of a highway and criminal damage.

Chief Superintendent Jerry Westerman, who was in charge of policing the activity, said: “Not only did the action taken by the Insulate Britain activists over the four days cause significant delays and disruption to our road network, it also endangered the lives of our officers and staff and other motorway users, as well as the activists themselves.

“The tactics used by these activists, which included running out in front of oncoming traffic and lying down in the carriageway, escalated rapidly and was unprecedented in any of the protest activity we had seen previously.

“We will always seek to facilitate peaceful protest but committing criminal offences and taking part in activity which puts lives at risk cannot be condoned. That is why we took swift and robust action to ensure that these activists were removed from the road and detained as quickly as possible to enable us to reopen the affected sections of motorway as soon as we could.”

Ch Sup Westerman said that the introduction of new legislation under the Public Order Act 2023 gives the police a wider range of options to deal with direct action protests.

He added: “I would like to thank those motorists affected by the disruption for their patience and understanding, as well as our colleagues in other forces and partner agencies for their support.”