Dunedin activist Rosemary Anne Penwarden (61), was convicted and discharged in Timaru District Court this week along with three other climate protesters, Genevieve Claire de Spa (49), Nicholas George De Courcy Hanafin (40), and Nathan John Parker (57).
All four entered a guilty plea to wilful trespass charges.
The protesters were among the 30 people armed with tents and sleeping bags who had boarded OMV New Zealand support vessel Skandi Atlantic at Timaru and locked themselves to pipes to oppose oil drilling off the New Zealand coast in November last year.
Penwarden said yesterday she would wear the conviction and the judge’s remarks in the courtroom as a badge of honour.
"I can’t think of anything more useful for a grandmother to do than to highlight the need for us all to get a little bit uncomfortable to try to save a liveable future," she said.
Stuff reported Judge Joanna Maze said the group’s civil disobedience was in response to a "lack of action" on climate change.
"In time you may be referred to not as offenders, but as leaders," Judge Maze said.
However, the judge said the protesters could have and should have achieved their aims without breaking the law, Stuff reported.
