Doctor jailed for climate protest
Patrick Hart sentenced to 12 months for cracking petrol-pump screens and is due before tribunal
A doctor has been jailed for 12 months for damaging petrol-pump screens in protest against fossil-fuel mining companies.
Bristol GP Patrick Hart (pictured above) was sentenced at Chelmsford Crown Court on 7 January having been found guilty of criminal damage in October.
The court heard how Dr Hart and another protester had broken away from a Just Stop Oil protest at an Esso petrol station on the M25 motorway near Thurrock, Essex, early on the morning of 24 August 2022 to cause damage to 16 petrol pumps with a glass-break hammer.
He damaged the display screens using the hammer, and orange paint, in action captured on CCTV.
The prosecution put the cost of repairs at about £10,000 and said the petrol station, owned by Exxon Mobil – one of the world’s largest fossil fuel companies – also lost sales while the pumps were inactive.
The judge, HHJ Mills, noted how Dr Hart had been convicted twice before of aggravated trespass, in relation to his climate activism, and was on bail at the time of the action in question.
He asked Dr Hart if he would take similar action again, to which Dr Hart replied: ‘I’m not prepared to lie to you. I can’t predict what form it will take but as long as I have breath in my body I will continue to resist fossil fuels and the death that they are bringing to human beings and life on Earth.’
Judge Mills said he had to find a ‘balance between the rights to protest and general rights of the community’ to go about their daily lives. He said ‘no less’ than an immediate custodial sentence would be sufficient punishment.
On being sentenced, Dr Hart looked towards his supporters in the public gallery and put his hands together. His supporters stood to their feet and applauded him, with some shedding tears as he was led from the dock.
Dr Hart is due before a Medical Professionals Tribunal Service tribunal. Doctors whose convictions have resulted in custodial sentences, whether they receive an immediate prison sentence or not, are automatically referred to a tribunal.
Other doctors, including Sarah Benn – who the BMA is supporting with an appeal – have had their GMC registrations suspended as a result of their climate activism, which has led to convictions.
Dr Benn, and fellow retired GP Diana Warner, have stepped away from clinical practice. Dr Hart could become the first currently practising doctor to face suspension from the GMC register as a result of climate activism.
During the sentencing, Judge Mills said the custodial sentence would ‘have an impact’ on his career as a medical professional, adding: ‘This is something that will have to be considered carefully by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service.’
Speaking to The Doctor ahead of his sentencing, Dr Hart said: ‘I’m afraid of the potential impact on my livelihood as a doctor, but I’m more afraid of the impact of climate breakdown. If anyone doesn’t fear that more, they’re badly informed.’
'Act of care'
In his closing statement in the October trial, Dr Hart said: ‘I do not feel guilty for what I did.
‘I believed then, and I believe now, that it was the right thing to do. It was the carefully considered action of a responsible citizen.’
He argued that he had ‘been allowed no defence in law’ and told the jury: ‘My only defence is a moral one, not a legal one. I did what I did as an act of conscience.’
Dr Hart said, ‘my whole life I have tried to be a caring person’, and that was why he became a doctor. ‘It is for the same reasons that I became a climate protester,’ he added.
‘I disrupted people as an act of care. I damaged the petrol pump screens as an act of care. Because, in times of great peril, a caring person has to stand up for what is right.
‘My actions have already cost me greatly … but I regret nothing because to not do it would have been to give up on caring, and that would be worse.
‘In the face of the permanent collapse of our climate, our economy, our society and life on Earth, the only thing that keeps me going is our continued capacity as people to care, regardless of what happens.’
Pitch invasion
Dr Hart has now been acquitted three times and convicted three times for the non-violent direct action he has taken in relation to the climate emergency since 2019.
Most notably, he was acquitted in June of criminal damage after throwing orange cornstarch powder on the pitch at Twickenham during a rugby match. He was found guilty of aggravated trespass in a separate magistrates’ court trial about the same incident.
In his closing statement in October, Dr Hart told the court how his fate depended on ‘the conscience of the jury on the day’, noting how juries in similar trials had acquitted and convicted defendants taking part in climate protests.
‘I am proud that I have tried my best to make a difference, when I had the chance,’ he said.
Just Stop Oil is a non-violent direct-action group that is demanding the Government signs up to a treaty to stop fossil-fuel use by 2030.
A BMA spokesperson said: 'Whilst the GMC has a duty to refer doctors to a medical tribunal when they receive a custodial sentence, in some cases, such as this one, the doctor’s actions will have no bearing on their ability to practise medicine nor pose any risk to their patients.
'Referring a doctor to a medical tribunal for something not directly related to patient care or their clinical skills, raises legitimate questions about the rules behind the handling of such cases and whether doctors should be punished twice for something totally unconnected to their role as doctors.
'The climate crisis is a health crisis and as such doctors are understandably concerned about the failings of Governments to address climate change, at the detriment to society. Doctors, like Patrick Hart, find it very difficult to understand why their ability to practise medicine could be suspended because of non-violent actions they take in protest of the climate crisis.'
(Image credit, main image: Gareth Morris)
