Protesters had to be carried off the pitch after they disrupted the cricket match (Picture: Getty)
A group of Just Stop Oil activists have been charged with aggravated trespass after invading the Lord’s pitch during the second Ashes test.
They enraged cricket fans when they ran onto the Lord’s pitch and threw orange powder into the air, spurring players and England captain Ben Stokes to intervene.
Now, Judit Murray, 69, Daniel Knorr, 21, and Jacob Bourne, 26, will face criminal action and appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on July 31. The charges carry a maximum penalty of three months in jail.
Metropolitan Police superintendent Gerry Parker, said: ‘We will not tolerate criminal or anti-social behaviour and there are serious consequences for people who engage in criminal acts.’
England wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow blocked one, believed to be Knorr, and carried him all the way off the field before handing him to a steward.
Another was blocked from reaching the pitch by Mr Stokes and Australia opener David Warner before being tackled to the ground by a steward and removed from the playing area.
The disruption caused a slight delay as ground staff cleared powder from the outfield and Bairstow returned to the England dressing room to change his shirt and gloves.
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Ben Stokes and Jonny Bairstow confronting Just Stop Oil protestors (Picture: Getty)
A Just Stop Oil protester being carried off the pitch by police (Picture: Reuters)
Just Stop Oil said: ‘It’s just not cricket to license new oil, gas and coal whilst the climate crisis knocks us for six.
‘The Just Stop Oil supporters are demanding the UK Govt immediately halt and new fossil fuel projects in the UK and are calling on Lord’s to make a statement demanding the same.
‘In recent weeks, Asia has been experiencing a historic heatwave. Reports indicate that cricket will be the hardest hit of all the major pitch sports by the extreme conditions wrought by the climate crisis—much of the cricketing world is at serious risk.
‘Lord’s Cricket Ground boasts about being powered by 100% renewable energy, yet their principal partner is JP Morgan, the world’s worst fossil bank that contributed $317 billion in fossil fuel financing from 2016 to 2020.’
Today, it emerged that Knorr made a video just before he stormed the pitch.
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He said: ‘I think I should be pretty nervous, s***ing myself as they say, but I feel quite serene because I don’t have a choice. It is too terrible to think of’.
‘Everything we know about our current way of life will not be able to continue. I don’t want to live through that – I don’t want anyone else to live through that really. I feel that I have to do something. If it has a small chance of convincing other people to do something, then I’ll do it’.
Just Stop Oil has been staging daily protests since April 24, disrupting high-profile events including the Chelsea Flower Show, the Gallagher Premiership rugby final at Twickenham and the World Snooker Championship, as well as holding daily slow marches on major London roads.
It is calling for an end to all new coal, oil and gas projects in the UK.
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The group has been charged with aggravated trespass, which maximum penalty of three months in jail.