A retired doctor who “wanted to save the world” walked onto rail tracks towards a freight train in an climate change protest, a court heard.
Former GP Diana Warner, 65, was wearing a high-viz orange jacket and waving what appeared to be a red flag as the 400-metre-long locomotive, bound for Drax Power Station near Selby, approached her at about 30mph, a jury at Leeds Crown Court was told.
Noticing the eco-protester waving a “big, red flag”– which in normal circumstances would be a signal for a train to stop due to an emergency – driver Kevin Fox slammed on the brakes.
He brought the engine to a stop just outside Snaith, just four miles from Drax, said prosecutor Oliver Connor.
The driver then contacted a signaller and was told there were no known issues on the track and that he was okay to continue.
“As the driver drew closer to the person on the tracks, they moved aside and stood on the embankment,” added Mr Connor.
In response to the train driver’s phone call, Network Rail dispatched Simon Vickers, an operational manager who arrived at the scene to investigate but “couldn’t see anybody on the lines”.
He was then approached by Ms Warner who told him she had been on the railway tracks “because she disagreed with the practices of Drax Power Station and that she wished to save the world,” added Mr Connor.
She agreed to stay at the scene until police arrived. As they waited for officers to arrive, the former GP told Mr Vickers that she had done it because “Drax claimed to be a green company but it’s not, as it’s causing deforestation in Canada, and she wanted to save the world”.
Denies the charge
Following the incident at about 8.45am on 14 December, 2021, Ms Warner, of Filton Avenue, Filton, Bristol, was charged with obstructing an engine or carriage on the railway by an unlawful act, namely trespassing on the rail line, contrary to the Malicious Damages Act 1861.
The former GP denies the allegation. She appeared for the first day of her trial today (Monday).
Warner told the jury she went to the railway line near the power station to protest when she should have been at court in London, to face proceedings for breaching an injunction to stay off the M25 motorway.
She said this injunction was imposed after she took part in Insulate Britain protests which brought M25 in London to a halt.
She told the jury she was eventually jailed for two months for contempt of court.
Warner said that she believed the publicity she received from skipping court and stopping the train near Selby instead, would highlight her campaigning on the climate emergency and other issues.
‘Sudden awakening’
Warner told the jury she became involved in environmental politics after her children were born in the 1990s, eventually standing for parliament twice for the Green Party.
She said she moved away from the movement in the 2010s because so little progress was being made, but had a “sudden awakening” in 2018, just before she retired as a doctor.
Warner said this came as she was examining a baby with congenital hip dysplasia, and realised that climate change was a bigger threat to the child than her condition, and she “vowed” to do everything she could to protect her.
Drax Power has come under heavy criticism from environmental groups for its use of biomass – wooden pellets extracted from felled trees in Canada and transported by ship from pellet plants in the USA to the UK, and then onto the North Yorkshire power station by train.
The defendant explained her objections to Drax power station, saying trees should “never be used to burn for fuel”.
She added: “This is our heritage, our lifeline.”
Opening the case earlier, Mr Connor told the jury of seven men and five women that there is no dispute that it was Warner on the tracks and that she was trespassing.
He told the jury: “Where there is dispute is whether the defendant caused an obstruction.
“The prosecution case, put simply is, causing the train to stop, that, in of itself, plainly amounts to obstruction.”
Mr Connor said the defendant claimed she was on the tracks “because Drax claimed to be a green company, but it’s not because it is causing deforestation in Canada, and she wanted to save the world”.
The court heard that the incident did not cause any delays nor any costs.