TWO activists appeared in court accused of causing more than £2,000 of damage to an historic Oxford building as part of environmental group, Just Stop Oil.
Daniel Knorr, 22, and Noah Crane, 19, have been charged with criminal damage after allegedly causing £2,500 of damage to the Radcliffe Camera on October 10 last year.
It is alleged the pair were taking part in a sit-down protest outside the library, which is not open to the public, before ‘vandalising it with orange paint’.
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They are accused of filling a fire extinguisher with intent to cause damage to the Oxford University building – leading to a second count of having an article with intent to destroy or damage property.
Just Stop Oil, which describes itself as an environmental activist group primarily focused on the issue of human-caused climate change, stated at the time that the action was part of a ‘wave of civil disobedience by students across the country’.
Speaking at the protest at the time, Knorr, a biochemistry student at the university, said: "Hundreds of millions of people will be forced to move from where they live, or die due to climate breakdown.
"The only words to describe this are murder and genocide. And that's why I'm taking action.
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"We are demanding that university leaders all over the country make a public statement calling on the government to end new oil and gas projects.
"If the government doesn't respond to them, we demand that university faculties and staff join students on the streets of London in November.
"All academics have a role to take urgent action - there is no research on a dead planet."
Crane was also a student who was taking a gap year at the time.
The pair were arrested together at the scene.
Speaking to the Oxford Student, a student-run university paper, a spokesperson for the University of Oxford said: “One of Oxford’s library buildings, the Radcliffe Camera, was vandalised with orange spray paint during a Just Stop Oil protest today.
“The university does not support illegal action, including any unlawful protesting, and may, within its powers, take any steps it considers appropriate against any student guilty of such behaviour.”
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Following the protest, the paint was washed off using a pressure washer.
Both men are now due in Oxford Crown Court for a plea and trial preparation hearing on Thursday, July 18.
Crane, of Aylsham Road, Buxton, Norwich, is due in court at 10am and Knorr, of Green Street, Oxford, is due in at 10.30am.
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