drax protesters have convictions overruled

A group of environmental protesters who were convicted after blocking a train carrying coal from getting into Drax power station in Yorkshire in 2008, have been acquitted at the court of appeal.

The 29 protesters had their convictions quashed after it emerged that evidence gathered by infamous undercover policeman Mark Kennedy (known as Flash to those he’s duped, pictured right) had been withheld from the initial trial. 

This is the second trial of environmental campaigners that has seen Mark Kennedy’s involvement withheld by the Police and CPS, the previous trial involved a group of campaigners at Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station in 2009 who were convicted but eventually had their convictions quashed.

Robbie Gillet, one of the previously convicted Drax protesters said: “In our trial in 2009, the police and the Crown Prosecution Service deliberately withheld evidence from the jury. They’re not interested in providing a fair trial to the political activists which they spy upon.