BREAKING NEWSJust Stop Oil activists BANNED from protesting ahead of their court dates before trial for hurling soup at Van Gogh masterpieces 

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

Stephen Simpson, 71, Mary Somerville, 77, and Phillipa Green, 24, lobbed Heinz soup over the artists famed Sunflowers 1889 and Sunflowers 1888 pictures at the National Gallery in London on September 27, Southwark Crown Court heard.

It came just hours after fellow Just Stop Oil activists Phoebe Plummer, 23, and Anna Holland, 22, were sentenced at the same court for throwing tomato soup over the latter artwork in October 2022.

Simpson of Shipley, West Yorkshire, Somerville, of Bradford, also in 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.

Just Stop Oil activists Mary Somerville, Stephen Simpson and Phillipa Green leaving Westminster Magistrates Court, central London, where they were charged with criminal damage, after soup was thrown at two Van Gogh paintings in the National Gallery last month

Simpson and Somerville are pictured arriving at Southwark Crown Court on Monday

Simpson and Somerville, who attended 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 their trial on January 5 2026.

Judge Alexander Milne banned the three defendants from taking part in protest action within the M25 until the date of their trial.

The defendants lawyer, Raj Chada, argued the ban was a disproportional infringement on their right to protest because London is the seat of government.

Judge Milne said: The application of the defendants right to protest is a relative one - and there seems to be a great deal of blurring between the exercise of that right and the commission of criminal offences.

This court is not banning them from lawful protest anywhere else in the UK, but I will ban them from participating in any protest within the M25.

A pre-trial review hearing is due to take place at the same court on November 24 next year.

In September, Plummer was sentenced to two years imprisonment and Holland was given a 20-month term over the October 2022 protest at the National Gallery.