Priest, 77, joined Extinction Rebellion protest 'to save human life' Published duration 5 February Related Topics UK climate change protests

image copyright PA Media image caption The Reverend Sue Parfitt told the court she was "not in the habit of saying 'no' to policemen"

A 77-year-old priest has told a court she lay in a central London road during an Extinction Rebellion protest to "stop the destruction of human life".

The Reverend Sue Parfitt told the City of London Magistrates' Court it had been hard for her as a law-abiding priest to defy police.

Ms Parfitt, of Bristol, lay on the road at Oxford Circus during the protest.

She denies breaching the order which was designed to prevent activists protesting in April.

image copyright Getty Images image caption Extinction Rebellion campaigners camped overnight in April at Marble Arch, Waterloo Bridge, Parliament Square and Oxford Circus

Ms Parfitt told the court civil disobedience had been the only option left to her and the necessity of stopping the destruction of human life and planet gave her lawful justification to protest.

She urged the court to acquit her.

"Each day, including the day I lay on the road at Oxford Circus, some part of the human race and the creaturely world was and is in imminent danger," she said.

"When asked by the sergeant to move, it did take some small effort on my part to refuse, I'm not in the habit of saying 'no' to policemen.

"But if we are to survive as a race and as a creation, we have to take the most radical, unpopular, counter-intuitive action."

Ms Parfitt told the court her "responsibility was to the many millions in this world who are currently affected" by climate change and to the "future generations who will be most grievously affected".

She is standing trial alongside 29-year-old Dimitra Soukiouroglou, who also denies failing to comply with the order.