Just Stop Oil activists who threw soup at Van Gogh were banned from protests in London

Three Just Stop Oil activists have been banned from protesting in London pending their trial for allegedly pouring soup over two paintings by Vincent Van Gogh.

On September 27, Stephen Simpson (71), Mary Somerville (77) and Phillipa Green (24) poured Heinz soup from a can on the artist’s Sunflowers 1889 and Sunflowers 1888 at the National Gallery in London on September 27 – Southwark Crown Court heard .

This came just hours after fellow Just Stop Oil campaigners Phoebe Plummer (23) and Anna Holland (22) were convicted by the same court of dousing the latter’s creation with tomato soup in October 2022.

Just Stop Oil court case — (From left) Just Stop Oil campaigners Mary Somerville, Stephen Simpson and Phillipa Green leave Westminster Magistrates’ Court after a hearing in late September (Jordan Pettitt/PA)

Simpson, Belmont Crescent, Shipley, West Yorkshire, Somerville, Lilycroft Road, Bradford, West Yorkshire. and Green, from Penryn, Cornwall, appeared in court on Monday charged with two counts each of damaging the frames of Sunflowers 1889 and Sunflowers 1888.

Simpson and Somerville, who appeared in court in person, and Green, who appeared remotely from Stratford Magistrates’ Court, all pleaded not guilty to the charges and were released on conditional bail pending a hearing on January 5, 2026.

Judge Alexander Milne banned the three defendants from taking part in industrial action on the M25 until the day of the hearing.

The defendants’ lawyer, Raj Chada, argued that the ban was a “disproportionate” breach of their right to protest because London is the “seat of government”.

Judge Milne said: “The application of the defendants’ right to protest is relative – there appears to be a large dilution between the exercise of this right and the commission of offences.

“This court does not ban them from lawfully protesting anywhere else in the UK, but I will ban them from taking part in any protests on the M25.”

A pre-trial hearing is scheduled to take place on November 24 next year in the same court.

In September, Plummer was sentenced to two years in prison and Holland received a 20-month sentence in connection with the October 2022 protest at the National Gallery.