Campaigners who blocked part of M4 in demonstration last summer are found guilty of wilful obstruction of the highway

Nine protesters who caused “utter chaos” when they chained themselves together and blocked a key route leading to Heathrow airport during a busy summer period last year have been found guilty of wilful obstruction of the highway.

Chanting “black lives matter” and “if they do not give us justice, we won’t give them peace”, they blocked the M4 southbound spur road to the London airport on 5 August 2016 at about 8.25am, Willesden magistrates court heard.

Four protesters held a large banner reading “this is a crisis” while six others formed a human chain on the ground. They linked their arms together using hollowed fire extinguishers filled with wire mesh and concrete.

The nine people on trial, who said they were Black Lives Matter campaigners, had denied wilfully obstructing the highway.

The defendants were Sita Balani, 29, of Southwark, south-east London, Liam Barrington-Bush, 32, and Aditi Jaganathan, 27, both of Tottenham, north London, Ewa Jasiewicz, 38, of Tower Hamlets, east London, Naomi Mabita, 23, of Manchester, Aadam Muuse, 24, of no fixed address, Alison Playford, 38, of Greenford, Middlesex, Joshua Virasami, 26, of Hounslow, Middlesex, and Mark Weaver, 36, of Beverley, East Yorkshire.

They were ordered to pay between £261 and £523 each, according to Hodge Jones & Allen, the law firm representing them.

Black Lives Matter protests block roads around UK Read more

Speaking after the conviction, Virasami said: “The media is reporting about Black Lives Matter and racism in our country today because protest works. This protest worked. A conversation around the violence of institutional racism has been reignited, but a simple conversation is never enough.”

Mabita said: “If people want to challenge us for causing a one-hour inconvenience, surely they’ll want to challenge a system that sees families wait over 20 years for justice?”

Raj Chada, who represented the activists, said they were “disappointed in the verdict” but the focus should remain on the issues they were protesting about.

Arresting officer Sgt Christopher Jackson told the court: “It was utter chaos, to be honest. The first thing my attention was drawn to was a huge amount of stationary traffic on the southbound lanes.

“People were out of their cars shouting at the protesters who were in the road and the people laying on the floor. There were people who seemed to know the protesters but were not involved in it stood on the side of the road. Members of the public were angry and shouting at the protesters.”

Another protester, Taylor Offoh, 20, of Penge, south-east London, had already accepted a caution.

Black Lives Matter is an international movement set up in the US following the killing of black teenager Trayvon Martin in Florida in February 2012. It began as a way to unite the African-American community to campaign against violence and alleged systematic racism towards black people.

The UK protest marked the fifth anniversary of the death of Mark Duggan, a 29-year-old black man who was shot dead by police in Tottenham, north London, sparking riots across England.