A HEXHAM climate protester has said she is 'standing up for young people's futures' after she was found not guilty of blocking a road in London.

Kate Bramfitt, 51, of Whitby Avenue, was arrested alongside other members of the Just Stop Oil group in Knightsbridge on October 11, 2022 and was charged with wilful obstruction of the highway.

She pleaded not guilty to the charge at a hearing in March 2023.

Earlier this month, on February 1 and 2, Bramfitt appeared at Stratford Magistrates Court in London, where District Judge Gascoigne found her not guilty and the case was dismissed.

Speaking after the verdict, she said she had a 'right to peacefully assemble' and 'protest' under Articles 10 and 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights Act, and added: "On the witness stand I was asked to explain why I was sitting on the road in Knightsbridge.

"I showed the judge two drawings that two friends' children had given me when they were 12.

"The first drawing depicted a lush world with trees, birds and clean air and a healthy teenager but on the opposite side was a terrifying world with dead trees, bare ground with nothing growing, heavy industry, skeletons, smog and planes.

"The second child's drawing showed our world on fire with the caption: 'This is where we're going...'

"What I did is totally in proportion to the climate and biodiversity collapse that is happening.

"This is the right thing to do. I am standing up for our young people's future. They feel they don't have a voice and it's their future.

"Young people know they are in deep trouble and are suffering from climate anxiety like me because they know the science."

Just Stop Oil is an environmental group which aims for the British government to commit to ending new fossil fuel licensing and production.

Across the country, hundreds of activists from the group are facing court action for protests.

The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 and the Public Order Act 2023 gave more powers to police to arrest protesters as well as to judges to give harsher sentences.

The UN's special rapporteur on environmental defenders Michel Forst recently released a statement defending the right to protest. He said: “The right to peaceful protest is a basic human right. It is also an essential part of a healthy democracy."