Sydney activist Eric Serge Herbert set for trial on conspiracy charge relating to Hunter protest activity

A controversial and well-known climate change activist will fight a conspiracy charge relating to protest activity in the Hunter.

Eric Herbert at the Extinction Rebellion climate change protest through Brisbane CBD in 2020. Picture: Richard Walker

A controversial Sydney activist will fight a conspiracy charge relating to protest activity in the Hunter late last year.

Eric Serge Herbert, 23, from Summer Hill was one of 30 people in November to be arrested for disrupting and obstructing the Hunter’s coal chain network organised by climate change protest group Blockade Australia.

On November 10, Mr Herbert posted a picture on Facebook showing himself standing on top of a freight train’s coal carriage with a fist raised to the sky.

Eric Serge Herbert will fight a conspiracy charge relating to protest activity in the Hunter. Picture: John Grainger

In Newcastle Local Court on Wednesday, Herbert appeared via video link from Melbourne and pleaded not guilty to a charge of conspiring with two other people to commit a criminal offence on November 17 at Kooragang, by intentionally causing obstruction to a locomotive or rolling stock.

The remainder of the charges against him have been withdrawn which include cause obstruction to railway locomotive or rolling stock, attempted hinder working of mining equipment, and attempted assisting obstruction of rail locomotive or rolling stock.

Originally, Herbert had pleaded guilty to the charges which have been withdrawn and was sentenced with a Community Corrections Order (CCO) before weeks later being sentenced to a year in prison for breaching that order.

He was able to successfully appeal that sentence and the charges were sent back to the Local Court.

But on his last court appearance in September, Herbert was set to plead not guilty to all charges when the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) informed the court of the new conspiracy charge that had been added to the list.

At the time, Herbert’s lawyer Mark Davis told The Newcastle News it was “extremely disappointing” he was slapped with the charge at the final moment.

Herbert at a protest in Brisbane. Picture: Richard Walker

“Rather than giving him the hearing that he has requested on the charges laid against him, they’ve (DPP) invented a new charge, on the final moment after 10 months,” Mr Davis said.

“We think it is an extremely weak case.”

In regards to the breach, Mr Davis also maintained his client was “doing nothing”, that he was in Newcastle with friends and was nowhere near the rail line at the time.

On Wednesday, Magistrate Caleb Franklin adjourned his matters to the District Court until December for arraignment and for a trial date to be set.

He also recorded that the breach was not established and could be determined at a later stage.

Without notice, Mr Davis also sought to vary Herbert’s bail to add a Melbourne address where he now resides, in addition to a Queensland address, that of his parents, on his bail.

The bail variation was granted by the Magistrate.

Xenophon Davis litigators represented 17 Newcastle climate protesters who had been charged late last year following “harsh” sentences handed down.

Following appeals in the District Court, including Herbert, 16 sentences were overturned.

A well-known climate change activist, Mr Herbert has a long list of charges for protest activity over the years.

It has included receiving a $400 fine for a climate change poster at Bega Local Court in July last year and a $100 fine by an ACT magistrate in May, 2021, after chaining himself to the wheel of a BMW used to drive politicians to Parliament House for federal budget sittings.

In 2019, he was sentenced to six months’ probation as part of an Extinction Rebellion protest where he locked himself to a car outside a Queensland government building for several hours.