Just Stop Oil stunt could have had ‘catastrophic’ consequences, court 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 in Scotland, and Cole Macdonald, 23, of Brighton, East Sussex, are accused of using fire extinguishers to spray the two aircraft at Stansted Airport in the early hours of June 20 last year.

The 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 entered the airfield by cutting through a fence with a circular saw, in a stunt later shared online by the group, Chelmsford Crown Court heard on Tuesday.

They 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.

CCTV footage shown to the court depicted the defendants in dark clothing carrying backpacks as they crossed grass and made their way onto the ramp where the aircraft were parked.

The video showed them producing fire extinguishers, running around a white jet and covering it in orange paint before moving to a second plane and spraying that too.

After several minutes, they sat on the taxiway wearing Just Stop Oil T-shirts and hugged as a security car arrived.

They were interviewed at Chelmsford police station later that day and answered “no comment” to all questions.

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 said she saw the pair walking across a live taxiway towards the ramp where the planes were parked.

“They undid their jackets, took fire extinguishers out of their backpacks and started spraying the aircraft with what looked like orange paint,” she told jurors.

“They had white tops on that said Just Stop Oil.”

She said she contacted airfield operations and the police, while colleagues tried to wash some of the paint away before the jets were pulled into a hangar.

In cross-examination, Rebecca Martin, defending 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.

A statement from fueler Rob Careless said he saw the pair in knee-high grass in an area where “you would not see airport employees”.

“I honked the lorry horn at them and they seemed to spring into action towards a stationary parked private plane,” he said.

“I did not know if my safety was at risk.

“I do not know why they chose that plane as they passed many other high-value planes before arriving at that one.”

He said one of the protesters recorded while the others sprayed paint around the jets.

Jurors were also read a statement from Nathan Farrow, head of customer experience at Harrods Aviation, who said the damaged aircraft were a Gulfstream 450 and a Gulfstream 650.

He said they had to be moved into a hangar “to limit the effects of the paint baking into the body of the aircraft”.

“I mobilised a response plan,” he said.

“We spoke to the operators of the aircraft and then organised specialist aircraft cleaners to inspect the damage.”

Kowalski and Macdonald deny one count each of criminal damage.

The trial continues.