Four Greenpeace activists who scaled Rishi Sunak's £2m North Yorkshire mansion walk free from court after judge decided they had committed no crime

Four Greenpeace activists who climbed on to Rishi Sunak 's manor house roof today walked free from court after a district judge decided they had committed no crime .

The eco-protestors covered the front of the then Prime Minister's Yorkshire mansion in black fabric during a high-profile demonstration against North Sea oil and gas drilling.

Activists Amy Rugg-Easey, 33, Alexandra Wilson, 32, Mathieu Soete, 38, and Michael Grant, 64, sparked a security row by walking on to the grounds and scaling the Grade II listed home at Kirby Sigston, North Yorkshire, unopposed in August last year.

They were later prosecuted for criminal damage and went on trial at York Magistrates Court.

But after hearing the prosecution case district judge Adrian Lower decided the evidence was too 'tenuous' and 'weak' and threw out the criminal damage charges as there was no realistic prospect of a conviction. He said he would give detailed reasons at a later date.

The Greenpeace demonstrators were accused of damaging 15 roof slates during the five-hour protest and leaving Mr Sunak and his wife Akshata Murty with a £3,000 repair bill.

However, Owen Greenhall, defending all four protestors, successfully argued there was 'no case to answer' as the roof was already damaged and it could not be proved the activists were responsible for damage found later.

Mr Greenhall said: 'It's clear this is a roof where there is pre-existing damage in areas where the protesters did not go. This is not a pristine roof by any means.

'The simple fact that there are cracks in the tiles on the southern elevation by itself cannot be enough to get over the criminal standard that the defendants are responsible for it.'

The court was told Mr Sunak, his wife and two daughters were away on holiday at the time of the protest and staff discovered what was happening too late to stop them scaling the property.

They could not be prosecuted for trespass in the criminal courts as it is a civil offence.

Outside court the Greenpeace four made the most of their legal victory. Several are seasoned activists and no strangers to the courts.

Rugg-Easey, a watchmaker from Newcastle, was among Extinction Rebellion activists who shut down Tower Bridge by abseiling off the sides in 2022. She also once glued herself to a Shell oil tanker as it left a petrol station in Paddington, west London.

During the election campaign in June she mounted the Conservatives' battle bus as it was parked in Nottinghamshire, unfurling a banner demanding 'clean power not Paddy Power.'

After today's ruling she said they were 'very proud of what we did.'

Grant, a former officer in the Parachute Regiment, forced a Russian diesel tanker to turn around in the Thames in May 2022. He was among ten protestors cleared of criminal charges because the Kremlin's war in Ukraine 'could be described as terrorism', a judge ruled.

He described the York decision as a victory for 'justice and common sense.'

While bar manager Wilson said the group was 'very careful not to break anything, including the law, and we're happy our efforts were recognised.'

Adding: 'In our case, the court maintained Britain's proud tradition of tolerating dissent, but that tradition is under increasing threat, with peaceful protestors being treated like terrorists and given shockingly brutal sentences.'

Belgian Soete is an 'energy campaigner' who previously worked at the EU Parliament.