Deportations Flight Protest 15 Win Appeal

Protesters who stopped a deportation flight leaving Britain had their convictions overturned by the Court of Appeal yesterday.

- Giles Sheldrick

Some of the stansted 15

The “Stansted 15” cut through the Essex airport’s perimeter fence in 2017 – preventing the Home Office repatriating migrants to detention centres in Nigeria, Ghana and Sierra Leone.

Convicted under the Aviation and Maritime Security Act, three were given suspended jail sentences and the others handed community orders.

But yesterday, in a written judgment, the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Burnett, sitting with Mr Justice Jay and Mrs Justice Whipple, overturned the convictions.