Southwark Crown Court has found two Just Stop Oil supporters not guilty of causing criminal damage at London’s Pride march.

London Pride Just Stop Oil protesters: not guilty of criminal damage

On 1 July 2023, Arthur Clifton, 22, and Guido Wieser, 19, sprayed black and pink paint over the Coca-Cola float during the Pride march in London.

Judge Griffith presided over their three-day trial, which concluded on Thursday 14 August.

In court, he ruled that no legal defences would be left to the jury. Griffith withdrew the statutory ‘lawful excuse’ defence, stating that the prosecution’s evidence of four-figure remediation meant the it could not treat the damage as trivial.

It meant that the court could not consider Articles 10 and 11 as a basis for lawful excuse. The judge did not direct the jury to assess proportionality or whether the harm was minor. He limited them to deciding only whether they caused damage and whether the defendants intended it or were reckless.

Pride is a protest: no more pinkwashing genocide

At the time of the action, Peter Tatchell (he/him), the veteran LGBTQ+ rights campaigner and prominent member of the Gay Liberation Front and the civil resistance group OutRage!, said:

I helped organise the first Pride in the UK in 1972 and have attended every Pride London march since then. Pride was always meant to be both a celebration and a protest. From the outset, we stood in solidarity with other struggles for freedom and social justice, against corporate pinkwashing and all forms of exploitation. We saw queer liberation as just one aspect of a wider liberation movement.

Climate destruction is destroying communities, jobs, homes and lives across the world, especially in poorer countries. Fossil fuels are endangering the survival of humanity – including LGBTQ+ people. Our community must not collude with environment, species and climate destroying companies.

Before the trial, Arthur Clifton said:

Multi-million pound corporations like Coca Cola are wholesale destroying my generation’s future. To then use Pride and Queer liberation to try and hide this is beyond evil. As long as the government keeps siding with world-ending businesses we all need to step up and act.

In 2024 Just Stop Oil successfully won its original demand of ‘no new oil and gas’ and on March 27th 2025 announced an end to the campaign of action. However, its supporters will continue to tell the truth in court, to speak out for political prisoners, and to help build what comes next.

Featured image supplied

By The Canary

This post was originally published on Canary.