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

Three Just Stop Oil activists have been banned from protesting in London while awaiting trial after allegedly throwing soup over two paintings by Vincent van Gogh.

Stephen Simpson, 71, Mary Somerville, 77, and Phillipa Green, 24, threw canned Heinz soup over the artist’s Sunflowers 1889 and Sunflowers 1888 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 convicted by the same court of throwing tomato soup over the latter artwork in October 2022.

Just Stop Oil lawsuit — (L to R) Just Stop Oil activists Mary Somerville, Stephen Simpson and Phillipa Green leave Westminster Magistrates’ Court after a hearing in late September (Jordan Pettitt/PA)

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

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

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

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

Judge Milne said: “The application of defendants’ right to protest is relative – and there appears to be a lot of blurring between the exercise of that right and the commission of criminal offences.

“This court will not ban them from legally protesting anywhere else in Britain, but I will ban them from taking part in any protest within the M25.”

A pre-trial hearing will take place at the same court on November 24 next year.

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