Two games at the tournament were disrupted when jigsaw pieces and confetti were thrown by activists. The trio denied that their protests amounted to aggravated trespass.
Three Just Stop Oil protesters have been found guilty of aggravated trespass after disrupting Wimbledon tennis matches by throwing confetti and puzzle pieces.
Deborah Wilde, 69, Simon Milner-Edwards, 67, and William Ward, 66, were convicted at City of London Magistrates’ Court on Monday.
Wilde, a retired teacher, and Ward, a retired civil engineer, were each given a six-month conditional discharge, meaning they will not be punished further unless they commit a further offence during their probation period.
Milner-Edwards, a retired musician, was handed an 18-month conditional discharge.
The court was told Wilde and Milner-Edwards entered Court 18 at around 2.10pm on 5 July last year, during a match between Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov and Japan’s Sho Shimabukuro.
The pair threw “around 1,000” puzzle pieces from a Wimbledon-themed jigsaw set and pieces of confetti, according to Michelle Dite, operations director at the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC), who gave evidence at the trial.
About an hour later Ward entered the same court wearing a Just Stop Oil T-shirt and threw more confetti onto the grass, halting a match between Britain’s Katie Boulter and Australia’s Daria Saville.
Boulter helped Wimbledon staff clear up the mess after play was suspended, the court heard.
The trio had accepted they had climbed over a barrier and threw the items over the court, but denied that the protest amounted to aggravated trespass.