Shubtill v Director of Public Prosecutions: Difference between revisions

Just after 11am, two young women entered Room 43 of the Gallery. Dressed in matching white tee-shirts, they might have been mistaken, at a glance, for devotees of the pop-group ''Wham!'' or ''Frankie Goes To Hollywood''.  I regret that no arguments were advanced, either way, as to whether they were, but their tee-shirts read  “{{caps|Just Stop Oil}}” and not “{{caps|Relax!}}” or “{{caps|Choose Life}}”, so we can suppose they were not. In any case, nothing turns on it.  

Being a normal Friday at season-end, the Gallery was busy enough for the women to escape the attention of the Gallery’s security detail. This the Gallery may since have come to regret, for the women had, concealed about their persons, containers of soup, and it soon became clear they had not brought them for lunch. Without ado, the women vaulted a low velvet rope, emptied their soup tins onto the ''Sunflowers,'' glued themselves to the wall and began shouting at everyone.  

Media reports tell us there were gasps, roars and a shout of “''Oh, my gosh!''” from nearby patrons, but beyond this, the bystanders took little action. Most stood transfixed. One did not. That one was the appellant. He exited Room 43, largely unobserved, and at a decent clip. We shall hear more about the appellant shortly.

In the mean time, the women continued with their shouting. Before long — with curious haste, I am inclined to think — the world’s media representatives arrived, with cameras, cine films, videographs and outside broadcast units. They formed a makeshift press Gallery. Their scrum may have impeded Gallery security — again, a regrettable dearth of evidence on the point  — but by all accounts no-one: not the patrons, nor members of the press, nor Gallery staff, made any effort to eject the young women, or even stop them talking. By now, Dame Marjorie contends, they were in any case fastened to the wall securely with Araldite{{Tm}} such that they could not be removed even if one wanted to.