IT was an audacious plot – and The Sun’s victorious bid to stop it could have come straight from a Hollywood thriller.
There was a feared mob leader, an undercover operation, a dramatic arrest, then a tense courtroom showdown.
And on Thursday it came to an end in true blockbuster fashion, with record sentences handed down to the Just Stop Oil eco zealots who we had exposed over their November 2022 protest that brought the M25 to a standstill over four days.
At Southwark Crown Court in South London Judge Christopher Hehir sentenced the group’s “ideas man” Roger Hallam to five years in jail, while Daniel Shaw, 38, Louise Lancaster, 58, Lucia Whittaker De Abreu, 35, and Cressida Gethin, 22, each received four-year jail terms.
The story had begun almost two years ago when a concerned whistleblower from JSO contacted me, prompted by a genuine fear that lives were at stake.
Arrangements were made for me to infiltrate a closely guarded JSO meeting at which I listened in amazement and horror as plans were set out to bring the M25 to a halt.
It all tallied with what my source had told me: “We’re all so worried.
“The plan is to block the M25 between now and 2023.
“It’ll be daily and go on for the rest of the year.”
Most chillingly the whistleblower added: “They’ve become a cult and they are putting lives at risk.”
Their words were later echoed by the trial judge as he sentenced the JSO ringleaders — or as they call themselves, the “Whole Truth Five”.
They arranged the one-hour meeting, only to be attended by trusted activists, and hosted by the people who were, I’m told, higher up in the group’s hierarchy.
It was to set in place plans to rally together as many people as possible so they could cause the “biggest disruption in British history”.
My source warned me: “They do get a bit suspicious.
“Use a fake, weird eco name, like FlowerPower. They like naturey names.”
So that was my codename as I logged on to the call at 7pm on the dot, on November 2, 2022, with my webcam turned off and my microphone muted.
Strangely for a secret rendezvous, the meeting opened with Bob Marley’s Get Up, Stand Up blaring from the host’s speakers.
Around a dozen people on the web call nodded along, then a voice boomed out: “We need to squash the evil — and what that involves is closing motorways.
“It’s almost impossible to stop and causes massive disruption.”
Then a familiar face popped up on my laptop screen.
It was Hallam, a 58-year-old organic farmer who is credited with co-founding JSO and acting as its “spiritual leader”.
He was already known for his front and centre role with earlier eco groups Extinction Rebellion and Insulate Britain.
Fresh-faced activists were in thrall, as he had already spent time in jail for his antics.
In fact we can reveal how he told Document magazine in 2019: “I was in prison last November, and the embarrassing truth is that I had a fantastic time.
“Going to prison is a deeply emotional and spiritual experience because it exposes you to a different side of life and what it means to sacrifice yourself to a greater cause, and that is a powerful experience.
“You’re in the cell and you have three naps a day and read your books.
“For British people, that’s a definition of paradise.
“I don’t give a toss that the door’s locked or that the food’s not that great.
“It’s just a rest as far as I’m concerned.”
The whistleblower’s words rang in my ears as I took in Hallam’s long grey hair and softly-spoken voice and I thought to myself: “He does seem a bit like a cult leader.”
Sitting in his ground-floor flat in South East London, he vowed: “This is not just another action, it’s potentially the most significant act of civil disobedience in decades.
“If it goes on for three or four days it is the biggest disruption in British history.”
This disruption is going to be even more showstopping
Cressida 'Cressy' Gethin
The plan was for protesters to climb the steel gantries over the M25, which would make police stop the traffic out of safety concerns.
Giggling, Hallam told followers: “We need to get on to the gantries — there’s thousands of them.”
In his audience was Cambridge University student Cressida “Cressy” Gethin — also jailed this week — who said of an earlier M25 blockade: “To see four lanes of traffic gone was incredible.
“This disruption is going to be even more showstopping.”
Fellow defendants Shaw, a social worker, ex-teacher Lancaster and key activist Whittaker De Abreu all spoke on the call.
As soon as I logged off after the meeting it was clear the evidence I had obtained was damning.
The next morning I sent my recordings to the Metropolitan Police and National Highways, as the protest was due to start on the following Monday.
Cops arrested most of the ringleaders in pre-dawn raids and a High Court judge granted an emergency injunction to bar the protests.
That weekend police arrested Hallam, and the Met’s Territorial Support Group invited me to witness the execution of his warrant.
This is normal procedure by the police, who regularly invite journalists to attend raids, to ensure transparency in their work.
I saw cops smash down Hallam’s door and seize his laptops as evidence before he later handed himself in at his local police station.
In the end, the JSO mob climbed the gantries, but six police forces across the South East of England had created a ring of steel around London’s orbital motorway.
Specialist teams had been deployed the day before, and there were significantly fewer activists on the gantries than there would otherwise have been.
However it still caused mayhem, costing the Met more than £1.1million, with damage to the economy put at £765,000.
It caused people to miss cancer appointments, flights and funerals, and a cop was hurt in an accident.
Nearly two years later, I had to face Hallam and the four other plotters in court as I gave evidence in front of a jury.
I faced a grilling from the activists, with four of them representing themselves, and a barrister.
I was quizzed about my methods as a journalist in the packed courtroom.
When Hallam came to question me, he looked me in the eye and asked a series of questions that the judge ruled inappropriate.
“What were my views on climate change?” he demanded to know.
The defence barrister then asked: “Why had I not handed the videos to the police sooner?
“Did I care more about the story than the people?”
No, I told the jury.
I am a journalist, so of course I care about stories, but I care immensely about public safety, and I handed over the videos as quickly as I could.
The judge was quick to remind the courtroom I was not on trial.
When my appearance was over, I sighed with relief.
The entire two-week trial was crammed with drama.
Hallam, Shaw, Lancaster and Gethin all had their bail revoked during the trial after they defied an order by the judge not to talk about climate change when addressing the jury.
Others were arrested for contempt for allegedly attempting to influence jurors trying the case, but proceedings have since been discontinued.
Judge Hehir said Hallam had been encouraging people on X to come to court with placards saying: “Juries deserve to hear the whole truth” and “Juries have the absolute right to acquit a defendant on their conscience”.
When passing sentence, the judge told the defendants: “The plain fact is that at some point you have crossed the line from concerned campaigner to fanatic.
“Your fanaticism has made you heedless of the rights of your fellow citizens.”
The judge said Hallam was “at the very top of the tree as far as the conspiracy is concerned” and that the Zoom call was “compelling evidence”.
He added: “Had not Ms Howes and The Sun passed the recordings to the police I consider it likely that the disruption would have been greater than it was.”
When I heard the verdict I was elated — despite the concerns that I and most other people share about the future of the planet.
This was a simple case of breaking the law — and it was proven by the Crown.
And in turn, this vindicated The Sun’s reporting.
