Just Stop Oil pair to blame for Crucible snooker protest

A Just Stop Oil campaigner who jumped on a table during the World Snooker Championships and covered it in orange powder has been found guilty of criminal damage.

Edred Whittingham, 26, interrupted a match between Robert Milkins and Joe Perry at Sheffield’s Crucible Theater on 17 April 2023

He was found guilty of causing criminal damage after a day-long trial at Sheffield Magistrates’ Court on Friday,

A fellow protester, Margaret Reid, 53, who tried to do the same on the other table in the theatre, was convicted of attempted criminal damage.

A video clip played in court showed Whittingham, known as Eddie, releasing the orange substance, which he said was dyed cornstarch powder, and kneeling in the middle of the balls on the table before being taken away by security.

The defendant told the court he believed his actions were “reasonable and proportionate in light of the greater threat we face from the climate crisis”.

Whittingham, from Exeter, said: “I didn’t intend to cause damage, I intended to cause disruption.”

Reid, a former museum worker, also denied trying to cause damage, saying she “intended to draw attention to the dire situation we are in”.

“We need to shake ourselves out of our stupor,” she told the court.

“We need a shock. We need an action like the one we took to make us jump out of the pan.”

Reid, from Kendal in Cumbria, said he had protested “politely” in the past, voted and written to his MP but it “didn’t work”.

Whittingham’s actions caused £899.90 worth of damage to the table, the court heard.

As a result, the completion of the first round match was postponed until the following day.

Reid’s attempts to disrupt the match on the other table, where Mark Allen and Fan Zhengyi were playing, were thwarted when she was attacked by referee Olivier Marteel.

Both will be sentenced at Sheffield Magistrates’ Court on July 10.

Max Hinchcliffe, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said the pair “showed a complete lack of thought or care for the players at the tournament or the fans watching around the world”.

He added: “The law supports the right to protest, but this must be balanced against the rights of others and this case shows that when lawful protest crosses the line into criminality, we will not hesitate to prosecute the offenders.”