Environmental activist Grace Ilbery wins appeal to reduce sentence after protest at Port of Newcastle

A Canberra teenager who scaled a coal loader in Newcastle and super glued herself to the railing last year has won an appeal to get her sentence reduced. Read what she received instead.

Grace Ilbery – a young activist was arrested in the port of Newcastle after she glued her hand to a structure within the coal port in June. Picture: Supplied

A teenage environmental activist, from Canberra, who travelled across the border to scale a coal loader and super glue herself to a railing at the Port of Newcastle has won an appeal to have her sentenced reduced.

Grace Ilbery, who was 18 at the time, live streamed the stunt via social media on June 21 last year, which was one of a series of protests staged by climate change activist group Blockade Australia which caused chaos and a number of disruptions to major facilities.

Her actions resulted in the teen being handcuffed and she spent a night behind bars before being released on bail with strict conditions.

Grace Ilbery – a young activist – had her sentenced reduced after a protest at Port of Newcastle in June last year. Picture: Supplied

Ms Ilbery’s hand super glued to the railing. Picture: Supplied

Despite a plea of not guilty to two charges of entering enclosed non-agricultural lands with a serious safety risk and entering a major facility to cause closure in July, Ilbery pleaded guilty to the second charge in November, with the other charge being dismissed and the hearing date scheduled for January vacated.

She was sentenced to a conditional release order (CRO) without conviction for a period of two years.

But on Monday, the teenager successfully appealed her sentence and it was instead reduced by more than half to a period of six months.

At the time of her first court appearance, Magistrate John Chicken warned her she had put a number of people’s lives at risk in what was an “incredibly dangerous” stunt.