Bay activist acquitted

KATE NEWTON AND AGENCIES
The former Havelock North woman who damaged a British coal-fired power station with five other environmental activists has been acquitted - to the relief of her mother.
Emily Hall, who went through Havelock North Primary, intermediate and high school and calls herself "a Hawke's Bay girl", had been part of the group known as the Kingsnorth 6.
Yesterday, the group was cleared by a jury at Maidstone Crown Court of causing criminal damage, worth £30,000, when they closed down a coal-fired power station in Kent in a climate change protest last year.
The six scaled the chimney of the Kingsnorth power station and painted "Gordon" on it in large letters, calling on Prime Minister Gordon Brown not to allow new coal plants to be built without the technology to capture their carbon emissions.
They had intended to paint the slogan "Gordon bin it" but were prevented from doing so when they were served with a high court injunction by police helicopter while still up the 200 metre-tall stack.
Miss Hall's mother, Jocelyn Hall, said today her daughter had called as soon as the jury's decision came through.
"I was relieved and proud that she had the courage to follow through," Mrs Hall said.
Mrs Hall said she and her husband were Greenpeace supporters, but not to the extent of their daughter, who had not surprised them by scaling the power station chimney.
"She has the courage to take steps when she feels they are necessary," Mrs Hall said.
"Most of us don't have that passion to go all out."
After her acquittal, Miss Hall, 34, said the jury's decision would be a huge blow for the Government's plans to build new coal-fired power stations.
"It's coal that should have been on trial, not us," Miss Hall said.
"After this verdict, the only people left in Britain who think new coal is a good idea are Business Secretary John Hutton and the Energy Minister, Malcolm Wicks.
"It's time the Prime Minister stepped in, showed some leadership and embraced a clean energy future for Britain."
The Kingsnorth 6 had relied in court on the defence of lawful excuse - claiming they shut the power station in order to defend property of a greater value from the impact of climate change.
The jury heard five days of evidence including testimony from the world's leading climate scientist and were told the Kingsnorth station emitted the same amount of carbon dioxide as the 30 least polluting countries in the world every day.
The acquittal is the first case where preventing property damage from climate change has been used as part of a lawful excuse defence in court.
The defence has previously been successfully deployed by defendants accused of damaging a military jet bound for Indonesia to be used in the war against East Timor before independence.