Three women and a man were found with ‘items that would have been used to cause significant disruption’
Police arrested four Just Stop Oil protesters near Manchester Airport on Monday morning.
Three women – aged 21, 30 and 53 – and a 23-year-old man were arrested on suspicion of conspiring to cause a public nuisance earlier today (Monday). They were found with a number of ‘items’ that police believe ‘would have been used to cause damage and significant disruption to the Airport and their operations’.
Officers said the four suspects were protesters from the Just Stop Oil activist group. All have been taken into custody for questioning.
Chief Superintendent Mark Dexter, Head of Specialist Operations at GMP, said officers stopped disruption being caused to ‘hard-working people heading off on their summer holidays’. He said: “We have been working hard with colleagues from Manchester Airport and police forces across the country, sharing intelligence, with the common goal to prevent these disruptive and targeted attacks on our airports.
“We have a duty of care to all members of the public. The right to protest must be respected, but we have a duty to balance that right against the rights of the public to go about their lives without being subject to unacceptable disruption and will undertake swift and decisive action to arrest those intent on causing disturbances.
“These arrests have no doubt prevented a determined and targeted attack which would have brought significant delays and upset to those hard-working people heading off for their summer holidays. Anyone who sees anything suspicious or who has concerns about safety or security should speak to an officer or a member of the airport staff.”
Last month, protesters from the group staged demonstrations at both Heathrow and Gatwick Airport. Orange paint was sprayed onto the floor and departure boards at Heathrow, while a number of demonstrators blocked the departure gates at Gatwick.
Last week, a judge jailed five Just Stop Oil activists for their roles in a protest which saw campaigners climb gantries on the M25, causing widespread traffic disruption. Judge Shane Collery KC said ‘many people suffered hours of delay’ and told the defendants: “Your actions were disproportionate to your aims.”
He said their purpose, on November 9 2022, was to ‘create mass disruption so Just Stop Oil would benefit from the media interest it would create’.