Just Stop Oil protestors spared jailed after Lord's stunt

England cricketer Jonny Bairstow was credited with saving the showpiece Test match when he "took out'" Daniel Knorr, of Green Street, who was one of three heading for the wicket, the court was told.

The three protesters threw orange powder across the outfield at the iconic northwest London venue and one nearly made it to the wicket, before being tackled by wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow.

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If the powder had got on to the wicket the Test would likely have been abandoned, leading to the loss of millions of pounds in revenue.

Bairstow grabbed the 21-year-old Oxford University biochemistry student as he headed straight for the wicket.

Nick Collins, Head of Security at Lord’s, told a trial last month that the match, the Second Test of the series, would have had to have been abandoned had any damage occurred to the wicket.

Knorr was convicted by District Judge Neeta Minhas along with co-defendants Judit Murray, a 69-year-old grandmother from West Ewell, Surrey, and 27-year-old Jacob Bourne, from Leeds, West Yorks, of one count of aggravated trespassing.

Each spoke at the beginning of the short sentencing hearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court this morning to confirm their names, dates of birth and addresses.

Bourne was dressed in a large purple poncho, alongside Knorr in a black hoodie with a cartoon T-rex on it, and grandmother-of-seven Murray with long grey hair.

All three had denied the offence.

The Judge had deferred the trio’s sentencing for a pre-sentence report to be prepared, focusing on applying a ‘deterrent’ to their sentence in order to prevent others from causing similar disruptions.

But today she merely handed all three defendants community orders.

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She told the trio that though they hadn’t intended to harm the pitch or have the game cancelled, their actions would have had an ‘unknown’ effect on the angry crowd, who may have been drinking and may have posed a threat to the safety of the protesters.

The Judge told them: “Whilst you may not have intended harm, and you say you coordinated your actions to minimise any harm, and I accept there was no damage to the pitch, security officers or players, the difficulty you have is that it is such a public location where there are so many people who are very much enjoying the activity, who may have been drinking.

“Your action will have an unknown effect to those in the crowd stand.

“That makes it difficult to know how they will react and also causes difficulties for the security, who then have to try to control the crowd.

“It also takes them away from the job they are supposed to be doing in ensuring your safety from the crowd.

She handed each JSO protester a 12-month community order, with a requirement to complete 60 hours of unpaid work, despite a pre-sentence report suggesting that Knorr and Murray were not fit for unpaid work.

Referencing the footage of the protesters running onto the pitch at Lord’s, the Judge said she was satisfied they had sufficient levels of fitness to complete the community work.

Each were also ordered to pay £440 in fines and costs, and banned from entering Lord’s Cricket Ground for one year.

The trio previously admitted they had targeted the Test match at the 'Home of Cricket' as they believe it will be one of the sports most adversely effected by the climate crisis.