Just Stop Oil Stansted paint protest risked disaster, trial told

Just Stop Oil activists who sprayed aircraft with orange paint could have caused “catastrophic” consequences, a court has heard.

Jennifer Kowalski, 29, of Dumbarton, and Cole Macdonald, 23, of Brighton, are accused of using fire extinguishers to spray two aircraft at Stansted Airport, Essex, in the early hours of 20 June last year.

Chelmsford Crown Court was shown a social media post suggesting the group targeted planes as Taylor Swift arrived in the UK as part of her Eras tour.

The pair do not deny being involved, but say they did not intend to cause damage or believe their actions would affect the planes’ value or use.

Ms Kowalski and Ms Macdonald deny one count each of criminal damage.

The court heard the pair entered the airport by cutting through a fence with a circular saw, in a stunt later shared online by the group.

CCTV footage shown to the court depicted the defendants making their way on to a ramp where the aircraft were parked before they covered the planes in orange paint.

Jurors were also shown a clip of a social media post later shared by the campaign group, captioned: “Just Stop Oil paint private jets hours after Taylor Swift’s lands.”

Prosecutor David Barr said the paint could only be removed with aviation-approved chemicals and that cleaning took 45 hours of specialist work over several days.

Paul Norton, managing director of Harrods Aviation, said in a statement that he feared the orange substance could have been poisonous.

“Cleaning an aircraft is not like cleaning your car,” he said.

“These aircraft are designed to fly at 40,000ft.

“They are precision-built, very expensive machines with every nut, bolt and component designed for efficiency but, more importantly, safety.

“An incident up in the air caused by something down on the ground would, without a doubt, be catastrophic.”

Duty operations controller Jade Louise Care told jurors she saw the pair walking across a live taxiway toward the planes before she contacted the police.

In cross-examination, Rebecca Martin, defending Ms Macdonald, suggested there was little aircraft movement at that time of day.

Ms Care agreed the defendants were only on the airfield for around 13 minutes before being caught.

The trial continues.