A UK animal rights activist who caused thousands of pounds’ worth of damage to a fountain in front of Buckingham Palace was on Friday handed an 18-month jail sentence and warned he faced “severe” punishment if he reoffended.
The sentencing of “seasoned protester” Louis McKechnie, 23, follows a toughening of the sentences meted out to direct action protesters.
The UK has seen a string of headline-grabbing stunts over recent years, from massive traffic disruption caused by protesters scaling bridges or motorway gantries, to attacks on art works or historic sites.
McKechnie and four other Animal Rebellion members poured red dye into the fountain near the royal residence in August 2021 to “create the impression of a bloodbath”, the hearing at Southwark Crown Court was told.
The activists were seeking to draw attention to the use of crown land for hunting and animal farming.
McKechnie’s 18-month sentence will be served at the same time as another, similar sentence he is currently serving.
Warning him he faced a much longer term if he took part in any further such protests, Judge Gregory Perrins said McKechnie had been “extremely fortunate to have been dealt with relatively leniently by the courts in the past”.
The dye used in the Buckingham Palace protest stained the fountain’s marble and required more than 60 hours’ cleaning to prevent permanent damage.
“You were concerned only about promoting your cause and thought nothing of the consequences of your actions,” Perrins told the five defendants.
“Each of you displayed a high degree of arrogance that you were completely in the right, that your views were all that mattered and that the consequences of your actions were a price worth paying for the promotion of your cause,” he added.
The other four each received an 18-month sentence suspended for two years, meaning they will not serve any time in custody provided they do not reoffend within 24 months.
In 2022, McKechnie glued himself to the frame of a Vincent van Gogh painting at a London gallery and told AFP he was prepared to be “public enemy number one” over his direct actions.
The latest case follows long sentences handed out to five Just Stop Oil activists, including the climate group’s founder Roger Hallam, earlier this year.
They were each given between four and five years in jail in July for conspiring to plan protests that blocked a motorway.
UN experts criticised the “severe” sentences handed to climate protesters after two Just Stop Oil activists were jailed in April 2023 for two and three years after scaling the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge over the River Thames at Dartford, east of London.
In a letter last year to the government, UN special rapporteur for climate change Ian Fry warned the sentences could stifle protest and were “significantly more severe than previous sentences imposed for this type of offending in the past”.
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