XR protester who broke window in Government building spared jail

An Extinction Rebellion (XR) co-founder was spared jail after causing thousands of pounds worth of damage to a Government building.

Gail Bradbrook, 51, was found guilty by a jury of breaking a window in protest at HS2 at the Department for Transport in October 2019.

The mother-of-two, from Stroud, Gloucestershire, appeared at Isleworth Crown Court, west London, on Monday where a judge handed her a 15-month prison sentence suspended for 15 months, 150 hours of unpaid work and a year-long supervision order,  a court worker told the PA news agency.

Bradbrook, who co-founded the environmental campaign group in 2018 with her ex-partner Simon Bramwell and several others, was joined outside court after the hearing by a group of supporters which included Game Of Thrones actor Jerome Flynn, while others were dressed as suffragettes.

In a statement after the hearing, released by XR, Bradbrook reportedly said the courts were “complicit in marching us off a climate cliff” while those responsible for “destroying (Earth’s) life-support systems are not being held accountable”.