Climate activist faces ten years in prison for sending a letter

Penwarden, who has previously made headlines after converting her car to run on electricity, admitted writing and sending the false letter to an oil company’s delegates.

Ben Smith, her lawyer, argued that the letter was not intended to be serious, was not authentic or sent to deceive, instead, he argued that it was meant to be satirical.

Following the judgement, Penwarden said she was astonished by the outcome. She said: “I like to think I was a threat to this industry, but for goodness sake, I’m 52kg, five foot three inches high, and 64.

“These are the biggest polluting companies in our entire world. I felt it was important that they heard from little grandmothers.”

She added: “I felt like it was a good time to be quite creative and to try different ways of communicating with the people inside.”

On Wednesday, a jury at the Dunedin district court founder guilty of two charges, making a forged document and using a forged document.

Both of the charges related to a letter notifying oil industry delegates that the 2019 Petroleum Exploration and Production Association of New Zealand (PEPANZ) annual conference had been postponed.

News that people had received the letter quickly made its way back to the PEPANZ offices where organisers swiftly informed delegates that the conference had not been cancelled.

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In her fake letter, Penwarden wrote: “We are deeply concerned at the rapidly accelerating social and political changes engulfing us, highlighted by many of our own children preparing to strike from school to demand a safe future.

“Despite our best efforts at secrecy, activists have discovered this year’s conference and were yet again planning noise and disruption. But there is a silver lining to all of this: we will not be there to listen to that incessant chanting.”

Crown prosecutor Richard Smith told jurors that the trial wasn’t about debating climate change or Penwarden’s character, but the use of a falsified document.

He said: “It was just to cause disruption to the conference with a thinly veiled defence of satire woven into it.”

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Penwarden was in the headlines last year when she spent £12,500 converting her classic car to run on electricity.

Speaking about the project, she said: “You do have to be a little bit mad. I want to thank the oil companies for the motivation.

“I’ve saved six tonnes of carbon dioxide from going into the atmosphere which is really lovely and it makes me feel good.”

Penwarden is due to be sentenced in September.

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