Climate activists acquitted over Stonehenge cornstarch protest

Three climate change protesters who threw orange cornstarch powder on three Stonehenge megaliths in 2024 have been acquitted after a two-week trial, the group Just Stop Oil announced Friday.

Just Stop Oil protesters Niamh Lynch and Rajan Naidu had doused Stonehenge in the orange powder in June 2024 while Luke Watson, the third defendant, had assisted in planning the action and drove them to the famed Neolithic site.

Watson said he had done research to ensure that the action would not cause permanent damage to the historic site and had ordered the color blasters filled with the cornstarch from a commercial website.

“All three stated clearly that they would not have gone ahead with the action if they had believed that there was a risk of any permanent damage to the stones or the lichens,” Just Stop Oil said in a news release.

“It was not their intention to cause any serious harm to the public, but to create a spectacle to get media attention on the need for a fossil fuel treaty.”

The protesters had taken part in the action to demand that the British government commit to signing a fossil fuel treaty to end the extraction and burning of oil, gas and coal by 2030—a date that represents a critical deadline set by scientists and international agreements for taking strong action to limit global warming and avoid its most catastrophic impacts.

Prosecutors had slapped the protesters with the charges of destroying or damaging an ancient, protected monument and intentionally or recklessly causing a public nuisance. After a two-week trial in the Salisbury Crown Court, a jury unanimously found the each of the protesters not guilty on both charges Friday.

During the trial, prosecutors said the protesters carelessly put Stonehenge at risk of lasting damage and spoiled the site for the 15,000 people expected to attend the solstice celebration the next day. And, they said the public was shocked that the protesters had targeted the 5,000-year-old stone circle.

“This is a UNESCO world heritage site, not some oil painting,” presiding Judge Paul Dugdale said at one point during the trial.

But evidence presented to the court showed that the powder, made of cornstarch and food dye, was washed off the same day at a cost of about $815, with no permanent damage caused to either the stones or the lichens.

Just Stop Oil accused prosecutors of resorting to personal attacks after realizing there was little evidence to support the charges against the protesters.

“I’m glad of the verdict but feel the last two weeks have been a complete waste of public money and that a case involving £620 of damage should have been dealt with in the magistrates court,” Watson, a 36-year-old carpenter from London, said in a statement.

After the verdict, Naidu lambasted the British judicial system for “shamefully” villainizing protesters rather than “rapacious billionaire class climate criminal.”

Just Stop Oil was founded in February 2022 by Roger Hallam, a British environmental activist who also co-founded Extinction Rebellion and Insulate Britain. The coalition’s primary objective was to seek the end of the British government’s approval of new fossil fuel projects using nonviolent civil disobedience tactics including art museum protests.

In March, the British government confirmed that it would ban new drilling licenses, The Guardian reported. Just Stop Oil viewed that as a successful win of its original demand and announced that month an end to its campaign of action. Its last protest was on April 26.