Three Just Stop Oil protesters have been found guilty of aggravated trespass after disrupting Wimbledon tennis matches by throwing confetti and puzzle pieces.
Deborah Wilde, 69, Simon Milner-Edwards, 67, and William Ward, 66, were convicted at City of London Magistrates’ Court on Monday.
Wilde, a retired teacher, and Ward, a retired civil engineer, were each given a six-month conditional discharge, meaning they will not be punished further unless they commit a further offence during their probation period.
Milner-Edwards, a retired musician, was handed an 18-month conditional discharge.
The court was told Wilde and Milner-Edwards entered Court 18 at around 2.10pm on 5 July last year, during a match between Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov and Japan’s Sho Shimabukuro.
The pair threw “around 1,000” puzzle pieces from a Wimbledon-themed jigsaw set and pieces of confetti, according to Michelle Dite, operations director at the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC), who gave evidence at the trial.
Ward is dragged off the court. Pic: PA
About an hour later Ward entered the same court wearing a Just Stop Oil T-shirt and threw more confetti onto the grass, halting a match between Britain’s Katie Boulter and Australia’s Daria Saville.
Boulter helped Wimbledon staff clear up the mess after play was suspended, the court heard.
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The trio had accepted they had climbed over a barrier and threw the items over the court, but denied that the protest amounted to aggravated trespass.
Deborah Wilde throws puzzles pieces from a jigsaw box with a photo of Wimbledon’s Centre Court on the front. Pic: AP
Simon Milner-Edwards sits on the court. Pic: AP
The judge ruled on Monday that although the protesters waited until a break in play, “each of them intended to cause disruption to the tennis and as a result they did cause some disruption on that day”.
He went on to thank each of the defendants for “the way they’ve conducted themselves,” and added: “All of you will have been very stressed.”
Pic: PA
That year the AELTC – which runs the competition – spent “hundreds of thousands of pounds” to manage potential protests after Just Stop Oil demonstrated at the World Snooker Championships and Ashes Test at Lord’s Cricket Ground, Miss Dite said.
She said Court 18 is a show court, where many top seeds play in front of “a few hundred” people and there is extensive video coverage.