Support climate change campaigner Mick Dunk

Aim

Councillor Mick Dunk sentenced to 26m & costs of £4380 for climate action protest. Funds to help with legal fees, costs & possible appeal.

STOP PRESS: We have now reached the £4,380 required for Mick’s legal costs so far. Any further money raised will go towards any further legal costs that Mick may incur, eg. if an Appeal is launched, or towards the joint legal costs of this group of JSO protesters should a joint Appeal be launched. Also, funds may be used to support Mick's family to visit him in prison and any other expenses that Mick and his family may incur as a result of his imprisonment. Thank you for the tremendous generosity of those who have already donated to raise this sum so quickly.

We need to raise funds to help Mick with his legal fees and to help him with a possible appeal against his sentence of 26 months for climbing on an M25 gantry for Just Stop Oil in protest against the opening of new oil fields and the resulting climate catastrophe.

Read the full story here:

Statement from Green Cllr Mick Dunk, representing Frome West on Somerset Council:

On Tuesday November 8th 2022 at about 7am I climbed onto a gantry over the M25. I tied a large banner onto the gantry which read “Just Stop Oil”. A short time later the police closed off the traffic passing under the gantry.

This was not an action that I took lightly but in October of 2022 the government had decided to issue a lot more oil and gas exploration licences for the North Sea. All the scientific evidence suggested that this policy would have made it impossible for the UK to meet our Climate Change target to remain below 1.5 Degrees warming.

Any ‘reasonable’ person would want to prevent extreme global warming in order to protect future generations and allow them to have a future. Even if I did not have children and grandchildren, I would have taken that action as my conscience would not allow me to stand back and do nothing.

The JSO gantry protest I was involved in lasted for 4 days. I did cause some disruption. The safety of the traveling public was my first consideration. I was arrested, removed from the gantry and charged with Causing a Public Nuisance.

I was refused bail and sent to HMP Wandsworth where I shared a cell with another gantry protester. Luckily, I was released on a tag with curfew conditions after 8 days whereas my much younger cell mate was kept in for over 6 weeks. He was suffering from Climate Anxiety; a term I had never heard before.

My Crown Court trial was scheduled for 22nd September 2025, nearly 3 years after the alleged offence.

My trial with 5 other defendants took place over 2 weeks and Judge Perrins dismissed all the defenses we wanted to use and ruled that the jury were only to decide if we had caused disruption on the day. Any evidence we gave on Climate Change as our motivation was ruled inadmissible in our summing up and the jury were not to consider it. The Prosecution Barrister would not allow any Climate Change facts in the ‘Agreed Facts’ given to the jury. We were all found guilty.

Another gantry trial weeks earlier at Guildford Crown Court where 3 defendants climbed gantries on the following day to us was completely different. The Judge allowed the defence of ‘Reasonable Excuse’, the Prosecution Barrister allowed 12 Agreed Climate Change facts to be in front of the jury and the Jury decided they were all Not Guilty. Such are the variations in our legal system.

Today December 5th, I was given a 2 years and 2 months jail sentence. I have to serve a minimum of 40% of the time, plus have costs of £4380. Four of the six defendants received similar sentences with two given suspended sentences.

I made a stand against a government policy that was at best ill judged but at worst a cynical policy to keep the oil & gas lobby happy, ensuring further donations to help keep them in power.

There is some comfort in knowing that this present Government has promised to not allow any new exploration licences in the North Sea and we have to hope that promise is kept, despite pressure from the fossil fuel industry and their spokespeople in the Conservative and Reform parties.

We are in a Climate Emergency and have to act like it. It is impossible to overstate the seriousness of our situation. I want to thank all the Council Officers, Councillors who are doing all they can to reduce our emissions in very difficult financial circumstances.

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made