Why did a judge praise the ‘admirable aims’ of Just Stop Oil activists?

When seven Just Stop Oil protesters were convicted of trespassing, the judge in the case had some warm words for those found guilty. 

District Judge Graham Wilkinson at Wolverhampton Magistrates’ Court praised the activists’ ‘admirable aims’ after they disrupted operations at an Esso fuel terminal in Birmingham last April. Wilkinson told the group during the end of the trial last week that he was moved by their ‘deeply emotive’ explanations.

This was a strange thing to say to those whose crime was not entirely victimless: the cost to the Metropolitan Police alone of the Just Stop Oil Protests over the days of the protests exceeded £425,000, to say nothing of the disruption to people going about their ordinary business. 

The judge’s unusual remarks did not stop there: he could not, he said, allow his own ‘moral compass or political beliefs’ to affect his decisions. Why, some might wonder, did the judge feel the need to refer to his own moral compass or political beliefs at all? He explained:

‘Trust in the rule of law is an essential ingredient of society and it will erode swiftly if judges make politically or morally-motivated decisions that do not accord with established legal principles.