Orchestra child is jailed for Just Stop Oil protests

Orchestra child is jailed for Just Stop Oil protests

Orchestras

norman lebrecht

July 19, 2024

One of the five climate protestors sentenced yesterday to four years in jail is Cressida Gethin, 22, from Hertfordshire.

A music student at Cambridge University, she is the daughter of the cellist Nick Gethin, who played in the London Symphony Orchestra from 1985 to 2006. Her mother, formerly involved with London orchestras, runs Cathy Nelson Artists and Projects, mostly for UK composers.

Both parents have told Radio Times that they are standing by their daughter.

A Labour government minister today welcomed the ‘strong penalties.’ Luke Pollard, the armed forces minister, told LBC: ‘I’m glad that there’s now been a strong message sent to them, and anyone thinking about that type of disruptive protest in the future, that there’ll be serious consequences if they go down that path.’

The Green Party’s Caroline Lucas says: ‘This sentence is obscene. Why are we punishing the people trying to prevent disaster while allowing the oil company giants causing it to reap super profits?’

Comments

  • Ok then says:

    22 is not a child, it’s an adult.
    Good so, keep it up Hertfortshire police, good work
    Keep these HAMAS-supporting, global warming alarmists in jail

    • Reuther says:

      Oh yes. Those of us who recognize the overwhelming scientific consensus on global warming and try to address it are EXACTLY like Hamas! You get the hotly contested prize for most unhinged slippedisc comment of the day .

      • A Realist says:

        If our country didn’t exist it still wouldn’t make a difference to global warming. They should demonstrate in countries that are making a bigger impact. There wasting there time and more importantly everyone else’s so they need to stop being silly

      • Roger says:

        The cause has nothing to do with this. It does not give someone immunity from the law. If anyone else went around blocking off critical infrastructure and causing misery to countless victims, they’d be jailed too. Justice has been done and I’m glad they’ve been made an example of. You can’t force your own views on everyone else through what basically amounts to terrorism.

        • Mr Wilson says:

          Have you ever seen an oil slick, the ‘Prestige’? Northern Spain, 12 years ago, polluted the entire north coast from La Coruña to Bordeaux. Look it up, friend.. it’s all there.

    • Jonathan says:

      A childish comment if ever there was one.

      • Cassandra says:

        I doubt the person who missed a key cancer appointment or thise that missed funerals etc feels it’s childish but feel free to disagree

    • Abraham Fineberg says:

      Draconian sentences at a time when prisoners are being released early because all the cells are full, it doesn’t make a lot of sense. Nor does conflating Hamas with this case. You were clearly not blessed with the milk of human kindness.

    • Evans says:

      Would one think that the word ‘idiot’ is fair comment?

  • Monopoliser says:

    A ridiculous sentence for such a minor offence – especially when violent offences so often get less time than 4yrs !

    • Roger says:

      This was a violent crime. One that affected many many victims

      • Imnotroadkill says:

        This was in fact and law a crime of violence. Blocking traffic on a critical highway is the functional equivalent of forcing a driver out of their transport and holding them by the lapels (or whatever) and physically restraining them from exercising their own freedom of travel and movement. The protesters made prisoners of all the legally traveling public. The eco-terrorist left are at a gut level totalitarians. Their way AND not the highway!

    • Dave G says:

      A relative of mine missed a crucial oncology appointment because of the antics of idiots like these. Neither he not his consultant considered the matter “minor”. The sentence was well merited and I applaud the judge for handing it down.

  • Alank says:

    I hope the jail cell is small to ensure she has a minimal carbon footprint for the next 4 years. Who know sea level rise might be slightly abated

  • Elizabeth Owen says:

    These white middle class twerps think it’s frightfully clever to park a boat in the middle of Oxford Circus or bugger up the M25 etc. No one achieves anything by being negative. When they come up with positive ideas then they may get some respect.

    • Del-boy says:

      Quite right Elizabeth. It’s a beautiful thing to see the self-satisfied smirk wiped off their narcissistic faces. Bravo to English law – better late than never.

      It also sets a sentencing precedent which is important.

  • marcus says:

    what is it the youngsters say these days? “Fuck around, find out”?

  • Iain says:

    She was “preventing” precisely nothing except the right of ordinary, non Cambridge educated people, to go about their daily business – like getting to work.

    Middle class parasite. No sympathy.

    • Kookywan says:

      It never ceases to amaze me how thoroughly the ultra-rich special interests (AKA the REAL parasites) have managed to convince us that the people on the next rung of the ladder are our enemies, all while they’re pushing said ladder off the roof and dooming ALL of us.

    • henry williams says:

      it would be better to
      give her unpaid work
      for a few months. like clearing litter.

  • Tim Walton says:

    No Child, she’s an adult that should know better. It’s about time these idiots were locked up.

  • V.Lind says:

    It’s a pretty harsh sentence when you think what people get for rape, manslaughter, GBH, etc. Even with remission she could serve as much as a manslaughter convict.

    I imagine the judge is trying to dissuade the climate protesters from some of their more extreme actions of the last year or two. I hope they are smart enough to rethink how they are going to put their message over — because they are right. But their methods are not making people sit up and take notice: they are alienating people who might well be sympathetic.

    Now if only BLM could get that message…

    • Tiredofitall says:

      Generally sentencing guidelines by judges follow the dictates of the set law. Best to familiarize oneself with laws before attempting to break them.

    • Anthony Sayer says:

      Well, now it’ maybe time to give people more time for rape.

    • Rod says:

      Yes , it was a long sentence but I think this may be the same person had been charged and put in prison before ,2023 ; however all the charges were dropped for lack of evidence and she was released after 23 days.

      Messing with the infrastructure of any country is serious , stopping traffic could have caused some serious accidents .

  • Tiredofitall says:

    Perfectly acceptable to express one’s convictions. However, in a civilized society, a person also must accept responsibility for their actions.

    Punishment is based on laws, not on a person’s perception of the relative harm they inflict on society.

    Ms. Gethin is not a child; she is a young woman and a daughter. At the age of 22, a person’s brain is capable of making adult decisions. That she did. So did the government.

  • Hugo Preuß says:

    It would have been nice for the article to contain some information on what exactly she was sentenced for. I realize that I can find out via google – but shouldn’t that information be basic if you find it newsworthy enough to write an item about the verdict?

    • Tiredofitall says:

      It took me 5 seconds and two clicks…and I’m hardly tech savvy.
      Perhaps SlippedDisk is tired of spoon-feeding its readers?

      Sloth can be a mortal sin.

    • Andrew Clarke says:

      The activities of Just Stop Oil should be familiar to most people: they include gluing themselves to major roads and refusing passage to vehicles taking seriously ill people to hospital. I believe Saffy was on trial for serious disruption to traffic on the M25 ring road that encircles London.

  • Yuri K says:

    Imagine she (and others) were sentenced in Russia…

  • Serge says:

    Freedom was given away by all you obediant idiots during Covid. This is one of the consequenses. Well done.

  • Sue Sonata Form says:

    What an unhappy-looking woman she appears to be!! Cressida. Say no more. Tarquin, perhaps?

  • Andrew Clarke says:

    She looks like Saffron after forty years of living with her mother. And at only twenty-two. Tragic.

  • Robert Scharba says:

    I’m guessing the word “child” refers to her being the offspring of orchestra people. It Confused me too at first.

  • Wise Guy says:

    Wind turbines and solar panels exact an enormous carbon footprint to make and terrible environmental costs, with only a small energy gain. If we just stopped oil, human life would stop. And where does the electricity come from for electric cars?

  • Ken Moore says:

    Should have got longer sentences, bunch of morons !!
    Think they are above the law !!

  • Fronk says:

    Quite right Ms Lucas-Green applolauds Charles Anstay… stuck in Jam in an Ambulance …whilst the Stop Oil protesters were looking for a place to Park Their Cars or hide the Bikes they had travelled on from Swansea,
    Glasgow or London NW4….
    in the rain….unless of course their parents drove them there…

    Is any one reading this Rant ?

  • Nelson says:

    Slow news day? What interest does this possibly have pertaining to ANYTHING related to music?? Just another trampoline for the political nut-jobs to go nuts and bore us to tears in the comments. Useless garbage.

  • Horbus Rohebian says:

    Well if playing the cello doesn’t keep her busy enough (quite a lot of repertoire for it actually) then by all means engage in an activity which disrupts the lives of thousands, postpones hospital appointments, diverts police resources at considerable cost and causes general mayhem. Not too sure it will have the slightest effect in reducing this country’s reliance on oil though. It’s a kind of theatre – we all need to show off from time to time. We do it as kids..

  • Sian Jennings says:

    The fact that Cressida Gethin is a Cambridge music student and comes from a family where mummy and daddy had posh jobs in the arts is totally irrelevant. She broke the law, caused inconvenience (catastrophic for some) to thousands of motorists, and above all failed to see that public opinion for JSO has gone completely. I was glad to see that social and education status counted for nothing and she was handed a stiff sentence.

  • Rod says:

    Well she should look on the bright side ;at least she’ll have a low carbon footprint in prison.

    If this is the same person that charges were dropped in 2023 for a similar event , then things didn’t turn out to well for her this time around.

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