Blockade Australia: Climate change activist sentenced to prison

A man with a long history of climate change activism has been sentenced to prison after several Blockade Australia protests.

A serial climate change activist has been sentenced to 12 months ­behind bars for his role in a series of protests blockading freight trains in the Hunter.

Eric Serge Herbert will serve at least six months in jail after he was sentenced at Newcastle Local Court on Monday.

Herbert was one of at least 29 people arrested this month in relation to the protests organised by climate change protest group Blockade Australia.

A photo of Herbert posted on the Blockade Australia Facebook page on November 10 shows him standing on top of a freight train’s coal carriage with a fist raised to the sky.

Herbert was charged with cause obstruction to railway locomotive or rolling stock, attempted hinder working of mining equipment, and attempted assisting obstruction of rail locomotive or rolling stock.

It’s the latest in a long-list of charges for the serial pest including a $400 fine for a climate change poster at Bega Local Court in July.

Serial climate change activist Eric Herbert. Picture: AAP Image

In May Herbert was fined $100 by an ACT magistrate 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.

Police last week announced the formation of Strike Force Tuohy to tackle the protesters in the Hunter, after the group crippled freight networks and export surrounding the Port of Newcastle with 20 protests over 11 consecutive days, with freight operators saying the unlawful actions had caused up to $60 million in delayed exports.

NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Peter McKenna warned environmental vandals could face up to 25 years in prison.