Stonehenge protestors insist "direct action" was justified
Niamh Lynch and Rajan Naidu were found not guilty of damaging an ancient protected monument and causing a public nuisance during a trial in October
Two campaigners who sprayed Stonehenge with orange powder have stood by their actions.
Niamh Lynch, 23, and Rajan Naidu, 73, were found not guilty of damaging an ancient and protected monument and causing a public nuisance at a trial in Salisbury in October 2025.
It followed their protest with Just Stop Oil at the historic stone circle in June 2024, just hours ahead of Summer Solstice celebrations.
The pair, who were driven to the site by an accomplice, 35-year-old Luke Watson, in a petrol powered car, used a mixture of cornstarch and food dye to spray orange powder onto the stones in front of dozens of visitors.
They were later arrested and charged, before being acquitted in the trial.
Ms Lynch justified her actions, saying that the natural world is facing a "crisis". She said: "I've always been in love with the natural world.
"I think the situation is desperate. I've tried many things, absolutely everything, and really felt that direct action was what needed to be done, given the rate at which we're seeing mass species decline, heading towards species extinctions, and just death and destruction on an absolutely immense and immeasurable scale."
Protestors accepting of consequences to their actions
Mr Naidu insisted the organisation is "fully accountable" for the action it takes.
"We don't run away, we don't hide, we think through very carefully what we do," he said.
Mr Naidu added: "We have a good reason for doing this. The reason for doing this was to highlight the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty.
"If we don't have a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty in place within the next few years in this country and throughout the world, then we face an existential threat, we face extinction very rapidly coming towards us."
The clean up operation cost almost ÂŁ700, but Mr Naidu said they would have been "very happy to clean it off" had they not been arrested.
"We chose a substance, cornstarch, coloured with food dye, which was very easy. We researched it very well, on the dry stones, we could have removed it very easily," he said.
"Sacred" stones were not damaged
Ms Lynch rejected suggestions that their actions punished the public for the Government not changing it's position on the use of fossil fuels.
She said that it is "absolute insanity" to argue that their actions caused a public nuisance that could equate to a ten-year prison sentence, the maximum term for someone found guilty of that charge.
The 23-year-old took aim at the media for fuelling a narrative around the stones being damaged.
"The reporting by the media of our action is very different to what actually happened in the action," she said. "Immediately after it had happened, news outlets were reporting that we had vandalized Stonehenge and that we'd attacked it, destroyed it, damaged it when no such thing occurred.
"It was very, very careful in our planning that absolutely we think the stones are and the lichen are absolutely sacred and would never do anything to damage them."