The Sunday Telegraph

Protester held after carping at Attenborou­gh during meal

- By Sunday Telegraph Reporter

A CLIMATE change protester has been arrested for trying to confront Sir David Attenborou­gh as he dined at a Michelinst­arred fish restaurant.

Emma Smart, an activist for the campaign group Animal Rebellion, allegedly caused a disturbanc­e at the Catch at the Old Fish Market in Weymouth, Dorset.

She was asked to leave the venue before being removed and detained by police. In a statement later released by Smart through Animal Rebellion, she said she targeted the restaurant as its “expensive menu was a symbol of excess and inequality”.

Mrs Smart, 45, approached Sir David’s table and tried to deliver a letter to him and have a five-minute chat about “telling the truth” about climate change. She added: “We don’t need another documentar­y series showing us that we are losing some 150 species going extinct globally every single day. “What we need is action.”

Sir David, 96, had spent Thursday in the harbour town to film a TV documentar­y about fishing and went to the

‘Sir David has the chance to leave a legacy of love, care, and of being the forerunner of a better world’ He has the chance to leave a legacy of love, care, and of being the forerunner of a better world.” Dorset Police said Mrs Smart, from

restaurant in the evening. Mrs Smart said: “The Catch is a symbol of excess and inequality in today’s world, Weymouth has average wages amongst the lowest in the UK and is at huge risk of sea level rises.

“Yet this restaurant continues business as usual amongst the worst cost of living crisis many will ever experience.

“Sir David is in a unique position to tell the truth about the biodiversi­ty crisis.

Weymouth, was arrested after allegedly causing a disturbanc­e and refusing to comply with officers after they asked her to leave the restaurant.

She was charged with failing to comply with a Section 35 direction and will appear at Weymouth magistrate­s’ court next month.

Animal Rebellion is a group calling for a plant-based food system and a mass rewilding programme.

 ?? ?? Police arrest Emma Smart at the upmarket fish restuauran­t in Weymouth, Dorset, where Sir David was having a meal
Police arrest Emma Smart at the upmarket fish restuauran­t in Weymouth, Dorset, where Sir David was having a meal

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