It took a matter of minutes in the court of appeal, where demonstrators were strangely absent, for the dial to shift once more on the rights of protest in England and Wales.
The decision taken on Monday by the court of appeal to, in effect, find in favour of the attorney general, the Conservative government’s premier legal officer, has removed a defence for climate protesters that had been available on the statute books since 1971.
Known as the “consent” defence, it allowed defendants on trial for criminal damage to argue that they honestly believed the owner of the property targeted would have consented if they had known of the damage and its circumstances.
