Melanie Edwards, a 48-year-old care worker from South Wales has just served three days behind bars for gluing herself to the witness stand while on trial for Extinction Rebellion action.

Here she explains why she did it and why she would do it again.

The court staff were shocked by my actions, but our actions are designed to wake people up.

It was completely out of my comfort zone. I was like “oh my God I can’t believe I’m doing this”, but I knew how important it was to take our protest into the courtrooms.

Parliament declared a climate emergency and the definition of an emergency is imminent danger. Yet the main prosecution argument is that our protests are unlawful because there is no immediate threat to life.

The courts swore to uphold the law and protect the citizens of the land. Climate breakdown will result in societal collapse and a breakdown of law and order which will result in widespread violence.

This is a complete failure to protect and we will continue to disrupt the courts until they recognise the emergency and acknowledge the immediate threat to life.

I spent three days in prison and it was completely different from what I thought it would be.

I was scared before I went in there, I thought it was going to be an intimidating atmosphere but when I went in there it was the complete opposite.

When I left prison I felt a bit heartbroken, I felt like I was leaving people behind in a way.

And I would do it again. I think any action is worth it because people have faith in the government, they think the government is going to help them but the government is not helping people.

I think it’s really important with the election coming up now, which is the most important election there has ever, ever been, and not because of Brexit, but because people are voting on their children’s lives.

We’re in a real climate emergency and people need to realise and wake up to it.

I’d rather not be an activist; I’d rather not be involved. I wish so much that what is going on was not going on. It’s totally unfair that this burden has been put on normal people and we’ve got to go through this.

Our lives are completely disrupted with so much stress and yet we’ve got no choice because the government are not protecting normal people, they’re not protecting our children.

What’s coming around the corner is absolute horror. The disruption we cause in one or two days of disruption is nothing compared to what’s going to happen.

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