My name is Dr Diana Warner. I am a retired GP.
I trespassed on network rail land and stopped a train heading to the Drax power station for thirty seconds to a minute. I was drawing attention to what most people now know; Drax power station adds to the mass death and destruction caused by climate change and pollution.
The Crown Prosecution Service has gone to the expense of a three day trial. I believe that Judge Kearl manipulated the Jury to get a guilty verdict. Today I have been given a two year conditional discharge and order to pay court costs of £4380. Drax power station is able to continue operating and at the same time it receives government subsidies. This doesn’t make sense to me.
But there is another more important story here.
What happens when the Judge tells a jury that they must ignore the science about climate change? That they must ignore the fact that the defendant is desperately trying to save lives and protect people’s health? What happens when jurors are told that they must act against their conscience?
This is an attack on the very basis most of us live by – that human life and wellbeing are of utmost importance, and that the rights to life and health are respected in law.
Juries look to the Judge to guide them regarding the law. The jury asked Judge Kearl what they should do because they could not come to a verdict because of conscience. Judge Kearl told them that they must ignore their conscience.
The jury accepted the Judge’s orders and made their decision against their conscience. We don’t know how many members of the jury felt obliged to act against conscience, but the jury then gave a unanimous guilty verdict.
The jury does in fact have the absolute right to acquit a defendant according to conscience*. There is a stone plaque in the Old Bailey stating this. The right is called jury equity.
When you act against conscience you act against the basic principles you live by. When you are forced to act against conscience by someone who holds authority over you, your sense of who you are and your place in society can start to unravel. You suffer from what is called moral injury**.
Moral injury can be caused in other ways. Moral injury caused by the Post Office scandal, and the psychological effects of being witness to climate change, have both been studied and published in scientific journals***.
We know that moral injury can cause physical and mental illness to the individual and to the individual’s family and community. The assault to the person is as severe, or more severe, than a physical assault.
The same unravelling of the basic principles we live by shakes all of us. It leaves us powerless to oppose the behaviours that are causing climate change. It allows fascism to take hold.
This is the time, more than ever, we all need to hold firm to our conscience. We need to act according to our moral principles for the safety of our lives and the lives of our children.
** https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0366(21)00113-9/fulltext
***Effects of post office scandal
https://www.bps.org.uk/research-digest/psychological-impact-post-office-scandal
Moral injury caused by climate change distress
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(22)00335-7/fulltext