Whaling protester scales embassy — court update

4 June 2008 update (main sto­ry below):
Con­di­tion­al dis­charge of four months and ordered to pay £100 costs after being con­vict­ed of tres­pass.

Wyness told the court staff at the embassy had giv­en him per­mis­sion to protest out­side the build­ing.

4 June 2008 update (main sto­ry below):
Con­di­tion­al dis­charge of four months and ordered to pay £100 costs after being con­vict­ed of tres­pass.

Wyness told the court staff at the embassy had giv­en him per­mis­sion to protest out­side the build­ing.

He said they had giv­en him the invi­ta­tion when he had tied him­self to ban­is­ters inside the build­ing on a pre­vi­ous occa­sion on 25 Jan­u­ary.

The court was also shown footage which had been secret­ly filmed which showed a mem­ber of embassy staff sug­gest­ing it would be bet­ter to protest out­side the build­ing.

6 March 2008
A cam­paign­er protest­ing against whal­ing by the Japan­ese has been arrest­ed after chain­ing him­self to the front of the coun­try’s embassy in Lon­don.

Mar­tin Wyness, 50, of Here­ford, climbed the build­ing at about 0730 GMT and low­ered the Japan­ese flag to half-mast about 40ft (12m) from the ground.

He then unfurled a ban­ner say­ing “Japan stop your ille­gal whal­ing” before chain­ing him­self to the build­ing.

Police said Mr Wyness came down from the build­ing at 1047 GMT.

He was arrest­ed on sus­pi­cion of crim­i­nal tres­pass.

His protest was believed to be timed to coin­cide with a meet­ing of the Inter­na­tion­al Whal­ing Com­mis­sion which began on Thurs­day.

The three-day sum­mit, which is being held in Heathrow, will dis­cuss the future of whal­ing in Japan, Nor­way and Ice­land.

In Jan­u­ary, Mr Wyness and his 14-year-old daugh­ter Sophie were arrest­ed after tying them­selves to a stair­case with cable ties inside the embassy, in Pic­cadil­ly.

The charges against them were lat­er dropped.

Video of action