Scots activist ‘hoped jet paint stunt would get Taylor Swift to speak out on climate’

A Just Stop Oil activist on trial accused of damaging two aircraft told a court she hoped Taylor Swift would speak out about climate change if orange paint was sprayed on her jet.

Jennifer Kowalski, 29, said she and Cole Macdonald, 23, had been targeting the pop star’s plane at Stansted Airport in Essex, describing the singer as “one of the most famous people in the world”.

But the two jets that they sprayed on June 20 last year belonged to an insurance company and an investment group.

Kowalski, of Dumbarton in Scotland, described herself as a “former Swiftie” and told jurors at Chelmsford Crown Court: “I wanted to do a Taylor Swift protest.”

She said she was autistic, and when she was younger “rather than having hobbies or interests” she would have “special interests”.

“It’s where you tend to be really passionate about certain things to the point of obsession,” she said.

“One of my first special interests was Taylor Swift.”

She said that “as time went on I saw her doing more problematic things”.

“More recently with her private jet usage and her place in the world in terms of climate change,” said Kowalski.

“It’s something where I questioned my love for her.”

She was asked by her barrister, Laura O’Brien, if she had thought about what the pop star’s reaction might be to her jet being sprayed with paint.

“I thought a lot about it, what her reaction might be,” said Kowalski.

“I hoped she might see it, and it might encourage her to speak out about climate change.

“I did think it was unrealistic, but it was a hope I had.”

She said she wanted to try to “shake her from this place of apathy that her and other celebrities are in”.

Kowalski said she “really just wanted to go to Taylor Swift’s private jet” but that Macdonald was concerned they may be stopped by security.

“I wanted to risk not doing it (the action), but obviously we were two people,” said Kowalski.

“Cole was wanting to make sure we got the action done and thinking we wouldn’t make it that far without security stopping us.”

She said it “wasn’t an option for me to split up”.

“Cole wanted to go to the private jet nearest us so that’s what I had to do,” said Kowalski.

She said she thought the paint “would just wash off”.

Asked with what, she said: “With water – it could just be hosed down and it would come off.”

She said that she and Macdonald “were aiming to get there before the airport opened so we wouldn’t be causing any disruption”.

A hole was cut in the perimeter fence with a circular saw at 5.02am, according to agreed facts read out by prosecutor David Barr.

He said the defendants made their way towards two private aircraft and sprayed them with orange paint and filmed it, then sat holding hands until police arrived.

Mr Barr said police were called at 5.09am and arrived at 5.18am, before the first scheduled flight of the day at 5.45am.

Macdonald told the court: “The idea behind doing it round Taylor Swift was she’s very famous and her public jet usage has been very publicly criticised.”

She said the part of the airport they accessed was “one of the furthest… away from the runway”.

Asked by her barrister Rebecca Martin if she could see Swift’s plane, she said: “Not immediately but about halfway through I could see where it was.”

Macdonald said: “It was too close to the runway, it was too close to public planes and I didn’t want there to be any potential disruption against regular people going on holiday, travelling for work or anything like that.”

She said she had asked unnamed others in Just Stop Oil about the paint and was told it was “children’s paint”, “water-based” and “wouldn’t stain”.

Zoe Varzi, a company director at a firm that professionally cleans aircraft, said the substance sprayed onto the jets “could have caused uneven surface texture to the aircraft if not removed correctly”.

She said this could have affected air movements.

Ms Varzi said the process of selecting the correct dry chemical to clean the Gulfstream jets was done under supervision of a Gulfstream engineer.

She said the substance had penetrated screw holes and window rubbers and took 45 hours of work to remove.

Mr Barr said Macdonald has no previous convictions, and Kowalski has two – one for a breach of the peace in 2022, and the other for failing to leave when directed by a senior officer in 2023.

Kowalski said in evidence that the 2022 matter was for throwing paint on a government building in Edinburgh in a climate protest.

She said the 2023 matter was for staying until the point of arrest at an occupation of an oil terminal despite having been told to leave.

Kowalski and Macdonald, of Brighton, East Sussex, deny the criminal damage of two jets.

The trial continues.