Smashing windows at Barclays HQ was ‘proportionate to crisis we face’

A climate change activist who smashed windows at the headquarters of Barclays Bank in Canary Wharf wept as she described her actions as ‘proportionate to the crisis that we face’.

Zoe Cohen, 52, along with Carol Wood, 53, Nicola Stickells, 52, Sophie Cowen, 31, Lucy Porter, 48, Gabriella Ditton, 28, and Rosemary Webster, 64, are accused of causing almost £100,000 worth of damage during the Extinction Rebellion protest on April 7, 2021.

They used chisels and hammers to break glass panels on the exterior of the building.

The women wore patches that read ‘better broken windows than broken promises’ as they placed stickers on the windows of the bank which said ‘In case of climate emergency break glass.’

They then cracked the glass using hammers and chisels, Southwark Crown Court has heard.

Wearing a green dress, Cohen became tearful as she told jurors:

‘I haven’t ever done this before.

‘I never gave evidence in a Crown Court before. I never broke a window before.

‘I am a 52-year-old wife and mum of a 19-year-old daughter, who is the centre of my universe.

‘My parents grew up during World War Two. I have my dad to thank for my dislike of injustice.’

She explained to the jury that she is from a Jewish family from eastern Europe who escaped fascism.

‘My dad’s parents came to this country to escape fascism.

‘My mum’s dad worked with the French resistance.

‘Justice really matters to me. I am a very thoughtful person.

‘I wanted to be really sure that what I was doing was not violent and proportionate to the crisis that we face.

‘I genuinely believed at the time that what I did was an act of love.

She said she told the policeman who arrested her: ‘You do know that the real criminals are in there.’

Cohen told the court: ‘I cried in the back of the van.

‘I cried at the police station while we were being fingerprinted.

‘This crisis is causing catastrophic and irreversible harm.

‘This crisis is being caused by the burning of coal, oil and gas.

‘I also sincerely believe that most people do not understand or comprehend the scale and complexity of the harm that has already been done to our only home.’

‘Banks and financial institutions play a key role in funding fossil fuels and other activities such as deforestation.

‘Without lending from these banks including Barclays I believe that they would not be able to continue their activities in the way that they do.

‘Some areas are already in collapse.’

All the defendants, apart from Wood and Stickells, are representing themselves in the case.

Cohen, of Lymm, Cheshire, Wood, of Swansea, Stickells, of Harleston, Norfolk, Cowen, of Shaftesbury, Dorset, Porter, of Euston, central London, Ditton, of Norwich, and Webster, of Dorchester, Dorset, all deny criminal damage.

The trial continues.
ends