Queer Just Stop Oil protester jailed for six months. Their crime is going on a slow march
Just Stop Oil activist Phoebe Plummer is arrested after Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” had soup thrown on it. (Getty/ Martin Pope)
A queer Just Stop Oil protester – famous for soup throwing – has been remanded to prison for six months for taking part in a slow march.
Phoebe Plummer – who is best known for hurling soup over Van Gogh’s Sunflowers at the National Gallery – appeared before Judge McDonnell at Highbury Magistrates Court on Thursday (16 November).
The 22-year-old is one of six Just Stop Oil supporters who have been imprisoned in the past two weeks.
Plummer was charged with a Public Order Act 2023 Section 7 offence, which relates to interfering with the use or operation of any key national infrastructure.
The judge asked Plummer if they would continue to protest if released, to which they confirmed they would, and on those grounds remanded Plummer to prison for a maximum of 6 months.
“I’m not going to walk out like that,” the activist told the court, “I will continue to march while they continue to licence new oil, gas and coal.
“How many more children have to die before you listen? How many more floods have to wipe out entire villages? How many people will die before you stop sending people like me to prison?
“Sir Mark Rowley has been handed a dossier of evidence. Why won’t you investigate the real criminals?”
Plummer will next appear in Southwark Crown Court on 30 November to enter their plea.
In December 2022, after Plummer and fellow protester Anna Holland threw soup at the £76 million artwork they spoke of the anti-LGBTQ+ abuse they had received on social media and from the right-wing press.
“If I had a pound for every comment I’d received since the action based around my queerness, I would be able to afford my energy bills,” Holland told PinkNews at the time.
“When the right-wing press focus a lot on mine and Phoebe’s queerness, it’s a way for them to try and ridicule us as individuals, and therefore ridicule our action, and therefore ridicule Just Stop Oil in general.”
They added: “It has really brought to the surface just how easily people will resort to homophobic comments and general homophobia, when they are angry at you, and when you publicly do something to cause that anger.”
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