Five people have been charged with aggravated trespass after Les Miserables was hijacked
Just Stop Oil eco-zealots are competing to see who could get arrested the most times in a bid to win prizes, it has been claimed.
Members of the pressure group, which campaigns for the Government to end all new oil, gas and coal licences, are attempting to overload the legal system as protesters plan weeks of chaos.
Five of its activists were booed and jeered yesterday, as they hijacked a performance of Les Misérables by clambering onto the stage at London‘s Sondheim Theatre before holding up their orange banner.
After being arrested last night Lydia Gribbin, 28, Hannah Taylor, 23, Hanan Ameur, 22, Noah Crane, 18, and Poppy Bliss, 19, were charged today with aggravated trespass. They have been released on bail and will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 3rd November.
It has emerged now, that Just Stop Oil members have been discussing the best ways to get arrested as many times as possible.
A JSO source told The Sun that it is essentially a competition to see who could get arrested the most. There will most likely be prizes for the winner as that sort of thing has happened at previous gatherings after a round of action.
The newspaper found one eco-zealot discussing a planned demonstration on 29th October in a group chat. They said they would be going to marches with ‘other regions’, adding that, This will allow me to spread the average three arrests per person easily over three weeks instead of attempting to be a superhuman and pull it off in a single week.’
Reports of eco-zealots who were competing for arrests come in a week where they disrupted yet another event for which hard-working Brits had paid up to £200 per ticket. The Les Mis performance at the Sondheim Theatre in London’s West End was brought to a halt at around 9 pm on Wednesday.
Police said they ware keen to hear from audience members who may have travelled from outside London to see the show.
The protesters climbed up to the stage and asked the audience to ‘join the rebellion in footage shared of the musical being hijacked.
A furious theatre-goer shouted: “Get off you stupid people. How dare you.” and another yelled: “You naughty people, you naughty people.”
As others booed and jeered the eco protesters, a man near the front snatched away one of the eco-protesters’ banners.
The stage invasion occurred during the musical’s famous protest song of Do You Hear the People Sing? often seen as a call to action and has been used all over the world in rebellions including the 2019 Jong Kong demonstrations.
On Wednesday Posting on X, formerly Twitter, about Les Mis protagonist Jean Valjean, Just Stop Oil said : “Valjean steals bread to feed a starving child.” “How long before we are all forced to steal?”
The post continued: ‘The fossil fuel show can’t go on.’
The Mail also revealed on Thursday that Oxford University‘s student union had invited Just Stop Oil to host a stall at this year’s freshers’ fair.
Twenty one year old Daniel Knorr who stormed Lord’s cricket ground during the second Ashes test match this summer, was pictured manning the stand and recruiting students to join the radical eco-protest group and also posted 17,000 JSO leaflets to Oxford students via their college cubby holes earlier this week.
The group has been contacted for comment regarding competing for arrests.
