Retired GP guilty of blocking power station railway

A retired GP who stopped a train heading for the UK's biggest power station has been found guilty of obstructing the railway.

Climate protester Dr Diana Warner was walking down the line outside Drax power station near Selby waving an orange flag when a freight train stopped on 14 December 2021, Leeds Crown Court heard.

Warner had told the jury how she went to the line to protest about Drax's contribution to the climate emergency and deforestation.

Warner, 65, of Filton Avenue in Filton near Bristol, was convicted by a jury on Wednesday. She was bailed to be sentenced on 25 March.

During deliberations on Tuesday afternoon, the jury asked Judge Guy Kearl KC, the Recorder of Leeds, for advice, saying "as a matter of conscience we are finding it difficult to come to a verdict".

Judge Kearl told jurors: "You have all taken an oath or affirmation to try this case on the evidence, not your conscience."

They returned a unanimous guilty verdict to the single charge of obstructing an engine or carriage using a railway, contrary to the Malicious Damage Act 1861.

Warner said that on the day of the incident she had been due to attend the High Court for allegedly breaking an injunction by joining an earlier protest on the M25 by campaign group Insulate Britain.

She said she had hoped to draw "attention" to wood-burning practices at Drax, as well as the wider climate emergency, by stopping the train on a day she was due in court.

During the trial, the court was played a video of Warner filmed beside the stationary train.

The retired GP could be heard explaining how the plant, which burns wood pellets, is "chomping through so many trees", adding: "We're just eating our pristine forest".

The court heard that Warner had previous convictions for obstructing the highway and for failing to comply with conditions imposed on public assembly.

Rosalind Burgin, defending, said her client had no convictions since 2022 and had made an undertaking not to take part in unlawful protests as part of a disciplinary process with the General Medical Council.

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