A SOMERSET grandmother who glued herself to the tarmac on the M4 near Heathrow Airport has avoided a prison sentence.

Former probation officer Ruth Cook, 71, from Rode, near Frome, was one of four people found guilty of causing a public nuisance.

Cook and two others defendants - gardener Roman Paluch-Machnik, 29, and carpenter Oliver Rock, 42 - were each given six-week jail terms suspended for 18 months when they appeared at Inner London Court today (Monday, March 13). They were also ordered to carry out 100 hours community sentence.

The three had said they have been deterred from similar action in the future due to their experiences in court and prison.

The fourth defendant, Stephen Pritchard, 63, from Bath was jailed for five weeks after pledging to continue disruptive action.

The court heard that the Insulate Britain protestors disrupted 10,000 vehicles at Junction 3 of the motorway over a two-hour period on October 1, 2021.

Judge Silas Reid said they had cause people to lose earning, miss appointments and potentially miss flights with their "deliberately criminal action".

The judge said the appropriate sentence for their actions would normally by around a year in jail, but that had been reduced because of their aim of bringing attention to the climate crisis as "motivation is relevant to sentence”.

Judge Reid told the protestors: "The court has to look at why someone has committed a criminal offence.

"You each spoke eloquently about your beliefs.”

While the judge acknowledged “protest has an important history in this country”, the defendants were told: “The right to protest does not give you the right to disrupt the lives of thousands of people."

Judge Reid told Pritchard, a Buddhist and former parish councillor, he was being jailed because he previously told the court that he would not stop taking part in similar action as a matter of “conscience”.

He said: "It is not appropriate for me to suspend the inevitable sentence… you will serve up to half of your sentence in prison.”

Speaking to all four defendants, he said: “None of you have shown any remorse for your actions and in fact wear them with pride.”

Earlier, the court heard the four had shown a “level of planning and sophistication” and had “been to the scene the day before on a scouting mission”.

Along with the suspended sentences, Cook was ordered to pay £3,763, based on her means, while Rock was ordered to pay a £128 surcharge.