WIG BEN
A CLIMATE change protester climbed up Big Ben wearing a Boris Johnson wig and a green leotard, a court was told.
Tree surgeon Benjamin Atkinson, 44, travelled 285 miles from his home to scale the London landmark and unfurl two Extinction Rebellion flags.
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The father of two clung on to the tower’s scaffolding for three hours and told Sky News by phone: “I don’t think Boris is doing his job properly.”
He hoped to broadcast from the belfry but was talked down by police in October last year.
Atkinson, who also runs a glamping site, previously said he wore a costume “to make it obvious this was not a terrorist incident”.
Jenny Winter, his defence lawyer, argued his actions were necessary and he was suffering from “climate change anxiety”.
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But PC Samantha Lloyd said: “This was a dangerous and reckless act which could have ended very differently both for the individual and also for the officers who responded to the trespass call.”
Atkinson, of Ambleside, Cumbria, was convicted of trespass at Westminster magistrates court.
He was ordered to perform 250 hours of unpaid work and pay costs of £865.
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