UK news This article is more than 9 years oldPop stars' daughter who glued herself to anti-fracking protester found guilty
This article is more than 9 years oldNatalie Hynde, daughter of Ray Davies, convicted of 'besetting' the Cuadrilla's test drilling plant at Balcombe, West SussexThe daughter of musicians Ray Davies and Chrissie Hynde has been found guilty after supergluing herself to a fellow anti-fracking protester outside the main gate of an exploratory oil drilling site.
Natalie Hynde, 31, and Simon Medhurst, 55, were convicted of "besetting" energy firm Cuadrilla's test drilling plant during high-profile protests near Balcombe, West Sussex, last summer.
Brighton magistrates' court heard the pair cost the firm around £5,000 by delaying deliveries for two hours after they superglued their hands together while Medhurst had his arm through the gate on 31 July last year.
Prosecutor Jonathan Edwards told the trial that access was hampered and Cuadrilla staff and contractors were prevented from going about their "legal right" to work there.
Hynde said her intention was to gain publicity by creating a "striking and symbolic" image to highlight concerns about the controversial method of extracting natural gas from underground shale rock.
And Medhurst – a veteran of environmental campaigns, including Newbury and the Hastings-to-Bexhill link road – also said the intention was to gain widespread publicity rather than obstructing Cuadrilla employees.
But finding the pair guilty, district judge William Ashworth said their protest "went beyond reasonable freedom of speech" because it disrupted access to the site for two hours. He told Medhurst and Hynde: "I'm sure that you did beset, in the true meaning of the word, the Cuadrilla site by locking yourselves around the gate and thereby controlling access to the site."
Hynde told the court she took part in the "peaceful, non-violent" direct action around seven days after arriving at the Balcombe site to galvanise public support against fracking. "The purpose of it," she said, "was to create an image in the media that would be striking and symbolic of the lock-the-gate process and raise the profile of fracking."
Hynde said it was not their intention to obstruct access to the site. "However, if it did, then great," she said. "That wasn't the intention. I didn't think that it would be possible for two people to delay in any meaningful way. It was for a snapshot, and hopefully get more interviews after that."
Under cross-examination from Edwards, Hynde was asked whether, because of her famous parents, she would have gained just as much media exposure without supergluing herself to Medhurst.
Confirming to the court who her parents are, Hynde went on: "If you are saying that holding a placard is enough, then it isn't. I have done those things and I wanted to take it one step further."
Hynde, of St Leonards-on-Sea, East Sussex, and Medhurst, of Hastings, had both denied a charge of "besetting" the premises. But after being convicted, Hynde also pleaded guilty to trespassing on a railway bridge at Balcombe on 18 August last year.
Hynde, a graduate in English from King's College, London, was given a concurrent 12-month conditional discharge, and ordered to pay costs of £400 and a £15 victim surcharge.
Medhurst, who has three previous convictions, was fined £200, and told to pay costs of £200 and a victim surcharge cost of £20.
The pair stood trial alongside three other defendants - Robert Basto, 65, of Reigate, Surrey, Jamie Spiers, 29, of no fixed address, and Nichola Sanger, 44, of Southsea, Hampshire, who also denied charges relating to the Balcombe protest.
Basto was convicted of obstructing the highway and acquitted of obstructing a policeman, Sanger was cleared of besetting the site by blocking its entrance, and Spiers will be dealt with later after he failed to attend court on Monday.
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