AN ACTIVIST who is suspected to be part of the Just Stop Oil environmental group has denied causing more than £2,000 to an historic Oxford building.

Noah Crane, 19, appeared at Oxford Crown Court on Thursday (July 18) charged with criminal damage after allegedly causing £2,500 of damage to the Radcliffe Camera on October 10 last year.

It is alleged that Crane, along with co-defendant Daniel Knorr, 22, 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 equipment with intent to destroy or damage property.

At a plea and trial preparation hearing, Crane pleaded not guilty to both offences and a trial date has been set to take place on August 4 next year.

Knorr will be arraigned on August 1, in four weeks, to give him time to consider whether he will have legal representation or will represent himself.

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’.