Just Stop Oil protester from Leeds spared jailed over 'reckless' British Grand Prix track stunt at Silverstone

Yeadon woman Emily Brocklebank, Louis McKechnie and Bethany Mogie were among five campaigners dragged off the circuit at Silverstone as two Formula One cars passed close by. They were given suspended jail sentences at Northampton Crown Court on Friday.

Passing sentence, Mr Justice Garnham also handed 12-month community orders to fellow protesters David Baldwin, Alasdair Gibson and Joshua Smith.

Gibson and McKechnie, both 22; Mogie, 40; Baldwin, 47; Brocklebank, 24, and 30-year-old Smith all claimed that the protest, which started after a red flag was signalled to halt the race, had followed a "meticulous" safety plan. But they were found guilty of causing what the Crown said was "an immediate risk of serious harm" by sitting "in the face" of fast-moving vehicles.

Brocklebank; Gibson, from Aberdeen; Mogie, from St Albans; McKechnie, from Manchester, and Smith, from Lees in Oldham, went on to the race circuit during the protest. Baldwin, of Stonesfield, Oxfordshire, who was found in a car park along with glue, cable ties and a Just Stop Oil banner, was said by the Crown to have been "in it together" with his co-defendants.

McKechnie and Brocklebank – who have a joint previous conviction for gluing themselves to the frame of a £70m Van Gogh painting days before the F1 protest – were given suspended prison sentences of 12 months and six months respectively, both suspended for two years. Mogie, a mother of four, was given a six-month sentence of imprisonment, also suspended for two years.

During the sentencing, Mr Justice Garnham told the six campaigners: "I accept that the motive for all of you was not to cause harm but instead to voice your concerns about climate change. None of you have committed any offence since the commission of this offence."

The judge added that the "reckless" track invasion had been carefully planned, was a deliberate breach of the law and had been carried out despite warnings about the danger of going on to the circuit. Video footage from various camera angles covering Silverstone was played at the activists' trial, as well as personal video statements from five of the defendants recorded a day before the protest, including a claim that the world is "being destroyed for the benefit of a few people".

McKechnie, who grew up in Weymouth in Dorset, told jurors the group had planned the action over two-and-a-half months, making it as safe as possible. During the trial, Mogie asked the jury to consider a 2021 Unicef report, which said about a billion children around the world are at "extremely high risk" from the impacts of the climate crisis and pollution. Mogie, who represented herself during the trial, said in her closing speech to the jury: "To love is to protect. And I hope you can see that's what we set out to do that day at Silverstone, before and on the day, with our planning and by sitting on the track peacefully for all that we are trying to protect."