Six charged after XR Cambridge protests

LONDON: A man and two women have been charged with criminal damage after Extinction Rebellion (XR) activists dug up a lawn outside a Cambridge University College.

Three others have been charged with criminal damage over a protest which took place the following day outside a research building run by oilfield service provider Schlumberger. The glass front of the building, to the west of the city, was daubed with spray paint and some activists glued their hands to police vehicles.

Cambridgeshire Police said all six people have been released on bail to appear at Cambridge Magistrates’ Court on March 30. The lawn outside the 16th-century Trinity College was targeted on Monday, with Extinction Rebellion citing the college’s “ties with fossil fuel companies” as a reason for the protest. Activists also cited the college’s role in the proposed development of a farm in Suffolk.

Caitlin Fay, 19, of Tudor Rose Way, Harleston, Norfolk, and 62-year-old Gilbert Murray, of Hawthorne Avenue, Norwich, have both been charged with criminal damage in connection with the incident at Trinity College. Gabriella Ditton, 26, of Violet Road, Norwich, has been charged with two counts of criminal damage in connection with Monday’s college lawn incident and over the incident at the Schlumberger building on Tuesday.

Extinction Rebellion described Schlumberger as a company with close links to Cambridge University and that “develops technology to drill the deep sea, drill for oil in the Arctic and frack communities”.

Tilly Porter, 21, of King’s Parade, Cambridge, has been charged with criminal damage in connection with the incident at the Schlumburger building.

Annie Hoyle, 26, of Windsor Road, Cambridge, and 64-year-old Donald Bell, of Bliss Way, Cambridge, have both been charged with obstructing a constable in the execution of their duty and criminal damage relating to the incident at the Schlumberger building. A seventh person, a 53-year-old woman from Bury St Edmunds, was arrested on suspicion of criminal damage relating to the Schlumberger building.