Sarah-Jane Ewart and Meghan Curran represented two Defendants in trial for their involvement in a direct action on Rokeby’s Venus at the National Gallery in November 2023. At the time, the Defendants were members of Just Stop Oil. The action received significant press attention at the time, which you can read here.

Following a week-long trial, the jury could not reach a verdict concerning the single charge of criminal damage relating to the painting. The jury were told by the Defendants that they had damaged the glass of the frame of the painting to protest the urgency of the climate crisis, believing the public would consent to their actions.

The painting was previously targeted by suffragette Mary Richardson in 1914 in protest at the treatment of Emmeline Pankhurst.

Both barristers were instructed by Peter Baker of ITN Solicitors.