The Three are Free

Three weeks ago, the men in this photo (a piano restorer, a soil scientist and a teacher) were sent to prison for protesting outside the fracking site at Preston New Road – they had done a bit of lorry surfing and stayed on top of lorries for 3 days.

Two of them were jailed for 16 months each, the other for 15 months.

Yesterday, three high court judges quashed the jail sentences saying that they were ‘manifestly excessive’ and that they should not have been sent to prison. The court heard that the judge at the original trial had family links to a company that supplies the oil and gas industry. A complaint against the judge is now being considered.

The men and their partners returned to the fracking site at Preston New Road today and I got a chance to talk to one of them. At the original trial the judge told them that they were not allowed to say why they did what they did and that they could not mention fracking.  I wanted to know how he felt about that, as it seemed odd and unjust to me, since even murderers have a right to a defence and to say why they did it!.