14 February 2024 , 20:03
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Broadcaster Chris Packham has told a court he 'selectively' supports Just Stop Oil as he stood witness at the trial of an activist.
The BBC Springwatch star 62, gave evidence as a defence witness in the trial of 22-year-old Cambridge music student Cressida Gethin, who scaled a gantry above the M25 near Heathrow as part of a protest by the group. The defendant denies one count of causing a public nuisance contrary to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022.
She does not dispute scaling the gantry but denies that it amounts to the charge. Mr Packham was among those stuck because of the disruption on July 20, 2022 – a day after the UK’s hottest temperature of more than 40C had been recorded. He told Isleworth Crown Court in west London he was forced to think about climate change while stuck for four to five hours on a trip from Hampshire to Surrey, where he was working on the BBC's Inside Our Autistic Minds programme.
Chris Packham appeared at 22-year-old student Cressida Gethin's trial at Isleworth Crown Court (Getty Images)Under cross-examination by prosecutor Neil Griffin, he insisted his support for Just Stop Oil is selective and conditional. The prosecutor asked: "You are not an independent witness, you support Just Stop Oil." Mr Packham replied: “I support some of their actions, selectively.”
The prosecutor continued: "You support them (Just Stop Oil), they love having you as a public figure?" Mr Packham replied: "I selectively support things that they do. What they make of my support is up to them. I probably don’t support them in the way that they want.”
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Speaking outside court, Mr Packham said he believes Just Stop Oil and other protest movements "constantly need to change" tactics. He added: "My message to the protesters as ever is let’s work together to think of creative, peaceful, non-violent means of communicating that message more effectively. It’s all right if you’ve got the motive but you’ve got to come up with a method that gets your message across, and the message is not getting across." He said he would work with the group if it comes up with "ideas that are peaceful and non-violent."
He went on: "You’re not going to catch people’s eye unless you come up with imaginative, creative, new ideas. We should be looking at other aspects of culture, sport, music, all of the things that are integrated into our lives and using them and participants there to make sure we get our message across.”
Earlier on Wednesday, the defendant broke down in tears at points during cross-examination as she insisted she faced a "massive moral dilemma" by engaging in the protest. The defendant, who has taken two years out of her studies, told the court she did not believe all lanes would end up closed and that she did not realise she was so close to Heathrow during the protest. When asked whether she intended to cause “spectacular disruption”, she told the court she did not but soon "realised this was potentially a more effective protest than I thought it would be."