Extinction Rebellion co-founder loses appeal over Heathrow drone conspiracy

The co-founder of environmental campaign group Extinction Rebellion has lost a Court of Appeal bid to have a conviction for conspiring to fly drones over Heathrow to close it, quashed.

Roger Hallam and Larch Maxey were convicted of conspiring to cause a public nuisance in 2023, but were spared jail in April last year, instead being given two-year sentences, suspended for 18 months.

A trial at Isleworth Crown Court heard that they conspired with others on or before September 14 2019, to close Heathrow to air traffic by the “unlawful flying” of drones within the transport hub’s flight restriction zone.

At a hearing in March, barristers for them challenged the convictions, saying their actions “did not necessarily amount to an offence”.

Lord Justice William Davis, Mr Justice Goss and Mr Justice Dexter Dias dismissed the appeal on Wednesday.

In their ruling, Lord Justice William Davis said that “none of the grounds of appeal provides any basis for overturning the convictions”, and that the jury’s verdicts “cannot be impugned”.

The trial heard that the plan to disrupt the airport was developed under the banner of Heathrow Pause.

Prosecutors claimed that Hallam and Maxey wanted the protest to go viral and shut down the airport, while also triggering arrests and generating publicity in support of their bid to make the then-government reverse its plans for a third runway.

James Curtis KC told jurors that several arrests were made during the protest in September 2019, but instead of hundreds of people attending to fly drones, the “movement died where it was”.

Mr Curtis said that Heathrow Airport and the police had to go to “inordinate lengths to prepare for the worst” and that the policing cost to the public was in excess of £1 million, with 1,600 officer shifts having to be moved.

Hallam and Maxey, who represented themselves at trial, said in their defence that they had no intent to cause a public nuisance or to close Heathrow, and that it was “merely a publicity exercise”.

Despite being given a suspended sentence, Hallam was then jailed for five years in July last year for agreeing to disrupt traffic by having protesters climb on to gantries over the M25, for four successive days in November 2022. This was reduced to four years by the Court of Appeal.

Maxey was also jailed in September last year for three years, for occupying tunnels dug under the road leading to the Navigator Oil Terminal in Thurrock, Essex, in August 2022.

They attended the appeal in London via video links from HMP Wayland in Norfolk and HMP Fosse Way in Leicestershire, respectively.

Henry Blaxland KC, representing both men, told the appeal hearing that their course of conduct “did not necessarily amount to an offence of causing a public nuisance”.

He said: “The question in this case was, what was the course of conduct? Was it the closure of Heathrow, or was it the flying of drones? The agreed course of conduct was not, and could not, have been the closure of Heathrow.

“None of the conspirators could themselves effect the closure of Heathrow. That was dependent on the actions of a third party.”

Mr Curtis, again appearing for prosecutors last month, said: “It was a cardinal assumption, fundamental assumption, on the part of the conspirators, that what they were proposing to do would have the effect of closing Heathrow.”

He said that the conspirators planned to cause a “national, if not international crisis” by closing Heathrow, adding: “It was always possible to close the airport because of the flying of drones.”

In a 12-page ruling, Lord Justice William Davis said the jury were “entitled” to convict them on the evidence, saying they had “stated their intentions in clear terms”.