A RETIRED Kendal teacher who is part of the Insulate Britain campaign has been convicted of causing a public nuisance.

Catherine Rennie-Nash, 72, a retired teacher and grandmother of two, was found guilty by a crown court jury following the conviction of two others from the county for the same action two weeks ago and the acquittal of another in December.

It is the eighth jury trial relating to what the group described as its 'campaign of nonviolent civil resistance last year undertaken to demand the UK government insulates Britain’s cold and leaky homes'.

Rennie-Nash was on trial with Simon Reding from Manchester and Helen Redfern from Gateshead.

They were declared guilty of causing a public nuisance in relation to the Insulate Britain roadblock at Bishopsgate in the City of London on October 25 2021.

After the verdict, Rennie-Nash said: “In 2021 we had a no-brainer plan, demanding that the government insulate Britain’s cold and leaky homes to cut carbon, stop thousands of our elderly from freezing to death in their homes and bring millions out of fuel poverty.

"Instead of getting on with the job, the government has chosen to prosecute the ordinary people who took action in support of our demand.

"They would rather silence and imprison people for standing up for what is right and for speaking the truth in court than act to protect the people from climate collapse. This is tyranny. They are failing us. It’s time to pick a side.

"More of us must take a stand. We don’t get to be bystanders. We either act against evil or we participate in it.”

The first trial relating to the same roadblock took place in December, in which all three defendants, including Gwen Harrison from Kendal, were acquitted.

A further trial took place in January in which all four defendants, including Beatrice Pooley from Kendal and Daphne Jackson from Killington, were found guilty.

After a six-day hearing, the 11-person jury returned a unanimous verdict.

The defendants will appear again for sentencing on March 24 and they have 28 days to appeal the conviction. The maximum penalty for the common law offence of public nuisance is life imprisonment.

The trial started with Judge Silas Reid ruling that the four defendants could not refer to their motivations for blocking the junction in their defence, said Insulate Britain.

Like earlier Insulate Britain jury trials, the defendants were barred from referring to the climate crisis, insulation or fuel poverty during the trial.

An additional restriction imposed in this trial compared with previous trials was on any mention of the 1960s civil rights activists, the Freedom Riders, on which Insulate Britain’s strategy was based.

In the seven previous Insulate Britain jury trials for public nuisance charges, two trials so far have resulted in acquittals, three have resulted in a guilty verdict and two have been deferred.

The Crown Prosecution Service has chosen to summon 56 supporters to answer 201 charges of public nuisance across 51 jury trials, the last of which is scheduled to begin on December 4 2023.