The three defendants were joined by supporters outside court Three men have been jailed for causing a public nuisance during protests at a Lancashire fracking site. The men are believed to be the first anti-fracking protesters in the UK to be jailed. Simon Blevins, 26, and Richard Roberts, 36, were jailed for 16 months and Rich Loizou, 31, was jailed for 15 months. The three men climbed on lorries outside Cuadrilla’s site at Preston New Road in July 2017, in a protest which lasted just short of 100 hours. A fourth man, Julian Brock, 47, was given a 12-month jail sentence suspended for 18 months after pleading guilty at an earlier hearing. Blevins, from Sheffield, Loizou, from Devon, and Roberts, of London, were convicted of public nuisance by a jury at an earlier trial. ‘Needed the toilet’ The court heard the men all arrived independently of each other at […]