Hotel evacuated after Extinction Rebellion protester set off fire alarms, court hears

20 February 2020 by
Hotel evacuated after Extinction Rebellion protester set off fire alarms, court hears

The InterContinental London Park Lane was forced to evacuate when a climate change protester set off a fire alarm during the annual ‘Oil & Money' conference.

Tony Booth, a research fellow at the Centre for Commonwealth Education at the University of Cambridge, caused the evacuation of 1,200 people during the conference in October last year, while other members of protest group Extinction Rebellion (XR) chanted and played the bongos outside.

Booth appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court today, where he admitted causing a false alarm of fire to be given.

Julie Idowu, prosecuting, said: "The offence was posted on Twitter. It occurred during the Extinction Rebellion protest on 8 October 2019 and the purpose of activating the fire alarm was to draw attention from the money conference and towards the issue of climate change.

"There were a number of people at the hotel, 1,200 people, and the hotel had to be fully vacated, including the elderly."

Tony Booth
Tony Booth

Booth (pictured) had initially entered a plea of not guilty, but confirmed he did not dispute the facts of the case.

His plea was changed after district judge Michael Snow told Booth he would still get a trial and a chance to tell a court his reasoning even if he pleaded guilty.

Prof Booth replied: "So it doesn't prevent it going to trial? Well, that seems fine then. Saves us money. That seems okay."

The don, wearing a big yellow Extinction Rebellion badge, gave the court a double thumbs as he left the room.

Continue reading

You need to create an account to read this article. It's free and only requires a few basic details.

Already subscribed?

The Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email

Start the working day with The Caterer’s free breakfast briefing email

Sign Up and manage your preferences below

Check mark icon
Thank you

You have successfully signed up for the Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email and will hear from us soon!

Jacobs Media Group is honoured to be the recipient of the 2020 Queen's Award for Enterprise.

The highest official awards for UK businesses since being established by royal warrant in 1965. Read more.

close

Ad Blocker detected

We have noticed you are using an adblocker and – although we support freedom of choice – we would like to ask you to enable ads on our site. They are an important revenue source which supports free access of our website's content, especially during the COVID-19 crisis.

trade tracker pixel tracking