Drax protester trial jury seeks advice on verdict

A jury trying a retired GP who stopped a train heading for the UK's biggest power station has asked a judge for advice, saying "as a matter of conscience we are finding it difficult to come to a verdict".

Environmental protester Diana Warner, 65, flagged down a freight train as it approached Drax, in Selby, on 14 December 2021, Leeds Crown Court had earlier heard.

Ms Warner, of Filton Avenue, Filton, Bristol, who has previously stood as a parliamentary candidate for the Green Party, denies a single charge of obstructing a railway vehicle.

Judge Guy Kearl KC advised jurors, who went out on Tuesday, to consider a verdict based on applying the law to the facts of the case.

After deliberating for about an hour, the jury of seven men and five women came back into court with a note for Judge Kearl, Recorder of Leeds, which said: "As a matter of conscience we are finding it difficult to come to a verdict. What should we do?"

Judge Kearl told the jurors that they should not decide a case based on conscience, telling them they should come to a verdict based on applying the law, defined by him, to the facts of the case, defined by them.

He told them: "You have all taken an oath or affirmation to try this case on the evidence, not your conscience.

"If you are unable to abide by your oath or affirmation, you should let me know."

On Monday, the court heard Ms Warner had told a railway worker she had trespassed on the line because she "wanted to save the world".

She said she had been motivated to stand on the line by the "threat of injury to other people and especially to our children" from climate change.

Ms Warner said that on the day of the incident she had been due to attend the High Court for allegedly breaking an injunction by joining an earlier protest on the M25 by campaign group Insulate Britain.

She said she had hoped to draw "attention" to wood-burning practices at Drax, as well as the wider climate emergency, by stopping the train on a day she was due in court.

In her closing speech, Rosalind Burgin, defending, reminded jurors the train stopped for less than a minute before it was cleared to continue into the power station, and the incident did not cause any delays nor any costs.

In his closing speech on Tuesday, prosecutor Oliver Connor told the jury the only question for them to consider was whether Ms Warner had caused an obstruction.

Mr Connor said: "The common sense conclusion is that stopping the train is obstructing the train."

The jury was expected to continue its deliberations on Wednesday.

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