Two women in their 80s filmed trying to smash glass protecting Magna Carta
Footage shows Reverend Dr Sue Parfitt, 82, and Judy Bruce, 85, using a hammer and chisel to break the glass.
Just Stop Oil have smashed the glass protecting the Magna Carta before glueing their hands together.
Footage shows Reverend Dr Sue Parfitt, 82, and Judy Bruce, 85, using a hammer and chisel to break the glass which covers the historical document at the British Library.
The pair glued their hands together after holding up a sign reading: ‘The government is breaking the law.’
It does not appear the glass was shattered.
Security is heard asking, ‘Can you stop doing that please?’ before the pair respond: ‘No.’
They then begin chanting, ‘We must stop oil’ before sitting down and rubbing glue on their hands.
There are only four surviving copies of the Magna Carta, two of which are held at the British Library and the others being stored at Lincoln Cathedral and Salisbury Cathedral.
A Just Stop Oil Spokesperson said: ‘Clause 39 of the Magna Carta is one of four clauses still enshrined in UK common law, a so-called golden passage that states: “No free man is to be arrested, or imprisoned, or in any other way ruined, except by the lawful judgement of his peers or by the law of the land.
‘Contrast that with civil law as it stands in 2024, where corporations are buying private laws in the form of injunctions that circumvent the people’s rights to a trial by jury for speaking out against the crimes of oil companies.’
The Metropolitan Police said: ‘At 10.52 police were called to the British Library to reports of Just Stop Oil activists trying to damage the Magna Carta.
‘Officers arrested two people on suspicion of criminal damage, both of which are currently in custody.
‘The damage caused was to the protective case and not the exhibit itself.’
The Magna Carta is a document created in 1215 that limited the power of the monarch and established human rights for everyone in England.
Signed on 15 June by King John of England in Runnymede, Surrey, Magna Carta was meant as a peace treaty between King John and his subjects, and demanded that every person had to obey the law, including the king.
Among the original 63 clauses in the 1215 Magna Carta – many of which dealt with King John’s wrongdoings during his tyrannical reign – were the right to a fair trial by jury for all ‘free men’ and the right of all cities, boroughs, towns and ports to enjoy ‘free customs’.
In 2018 a man attempted to steal a copy from Salisbury Cathedral.
Mark Royden, from Canterbury, Kent, is said to have smashed at the 800-year-old document’s protective case.
He was found guilty of attempted theft and causing criminal damage, costing £14,466 to repair.
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