West Gate Bridge climate protesters jailed for rush-hour chaos

Two climate protesters are in jail for blocking lanes on a major Melbourne highway, causing significant delays at rush hour.

Deanna ‘Violet’ Coco, 33, from NSW and Bradley Homewood, 51, from Williamstown yesterday pleaded guilty to two charges of public nuisance by obstructing motorists and obstructing police and emergency services.

Both were sentenced to 21 days in jail.

Their co-accused, Joseph Zammit, 68, of Melbourne, also pleaded guilty to the same charges.

Two Extinction Rebellion protesters have been sentenced to 21 days in jail for blocking traffic

He was released on bail on the condition that he would not attend any unlawful protests, not take any unlawful actions during a protest and not associate with Coco and Homewood.

Members of environmental campaign group Extinction Rebellion parked a truck on the West Gate Bridge at around 7.45am yesterday and climbed onto it, unfurling banners reading ‘declare a climate emergency’ and ‘climate disintegration has begun’.

Police claimed they set off flares while sitting on top of the truck.

The protest caused a traffic jam that blocked three lanes around the city and caused delays of around 20 miles.

“The consequences of their actions caused enormous catastrophic inconvenience and delay to thousands of members of the public,” a prosecutor told the court.

Officers used an aerial platform to safely arrest and lower the trio at 9.45am after they refused to get out of the truck. After the lanes were reopened, significant traffic delays remained.

Zammit defended his group’s action at the Melbourne Magistrates Court, saying they were concerned about people’s futures.

“What they suffered today is nothing compared to what will happen in the future,” he said.

“What we’re actually doing is a service to the community.”

Officers used an aerial platform to safely arrest and lower the trio at 9.45am on Tuesday after they refused to get out of the truck parked on the West Gate Bridge (pictured)

But Magistrate Andrew McKenna punished the activists, saying the actions were difficult to justify.

‘It’s not about anarchy. It is about an ordered society – in the right democratic way,” he said.

“Whether someone has a good cause or not, you have to work within the law to advance that cause and if you don’t you risk being punished.”

Homewood said he was pushed into action after being driven to despair by the existential crisis that accompanies a climate crisis.

“I feel like I have no choice anymore,” he said. ‘I have tried all conventional campaign methods but nothing has worked.

“We see what we do as a proportionate response to the inaction of governments around the world.”

He defended his actions, saying that non-violent protests were vilified at the time, but activists were proven right in the future.

McKenna said the protesters would have caused the opposite reaction they wanted from most of the community.

The protest caused a traffic jam that blocked three lanes around the city and caused delays of around 30 kilometers (pictured)

Coco has had previous run-ins with police in Victoria, NSW and Western Australia over her activism.

She was jailed for 13 days after blocking a lane of the Sydney Harbor Bridge during the morning rush hour in 2022.

The police accused Coco of making a career by causing a public nuisance.

While jailing Coco, McKenna said she was completely indifferent to the victims of her actions.

“She basically put her own interests and her own cause above the interests of others in the community – many more people than just her and two others,” he said.

Zammit is due back in court on April 16.