Lawyers claim that 22 activists who took control of a 21-wagon coal train last year are bent on 'misusing the court process to continue the action'Climate change campaigners who hijacked a power station coal train were accused today of planning to turn their trial into a second public protest on
energy policy and global warming.Prosecution lawyers claimed that 22 men and women who clambered aboard a 21-wagon supply service to Drax in north Yorkshire last year were bent on "misusing the court process to continue the action."The dock at Leeds crown court overflowed into the well as the group, aged between 48 and 21, pleaded not guilty to obstructing a railway engine contrary to the Malicious Damage Act of 1861.The court heard that they had carried out "a well-planned and orchestrated action," halting the train with red flags and fake railwaymen's uniforms precisely by a river bridge which they could use to climb on to the huge coal hoppers."They effectively took control of the train," said Richard Mansell QC, prosecuting, "and then started shovelling its coal on to the track below." Makeshift tents were erected on two of the wagons while other protesters manacled themselves to the train and bridge girders, using locks that police specialists did not cut through for 16 hours.The protest was aimed at greenhouse gas pollution from coal-burning at Drax, the largest power station of its kind in Europe, and fuel trains were disrupted for two days. Mansell told the jury of six men and six women that passenger and freight services had been disrupted, causing financial loss to several companies, and the clearing of the coal and ballast cleaning had cost £30,000.The court heard that there was a good-humoured atmosphere on all sides during the confrontation, which ended at midnight when a specialist police team unlocked the last protester. One of the group, who are from London, Manchester, Leeds, Wales, the south-east and Scotland, had dressed as a canary. She car ...
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