A new ruling against three fracking protestors has sent shivers of unease through activist communities this week, after Judge Robert Altham sentenced each of the men to over a year in jail.
This is the first time such severe sentences have been given for environmental protest since 1932, when ramblers trespassed across moorland at Kinder Scout and gave birth to the right-to-roam movement. In 1993, seven people were imprisoned after opposing the construction of the M3 motorway, but that was for breaking an injunction, rather than for first-time offences of “public nuisance”, as in this latest case.
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