Lucy Lawless Protests Drilling

Lucy Lawless Protests Drilling, Police scale the drilling tower to arrest Greenpeace activists, including Spartacus star Lucy Lawless, who spent four days protesting.   Lucy Lawless’ ability to travel to the United States could be “seriously impaired” if she is found guilty of burglary following her arrest after participating in a Greenpeace protest, a legal expert says.

The star of Xena and Spartacus was among seven protesters charged after a demonstration aboard a Shell drillship in Port Taranaki yesterday.

Police officers scaled the Noble Discoverer’s drilling tower to arrest the group, four days after the protest began, 53m up the ship’s drilling tower.

The group would appear in New Plymouth District Court on Thursday, police said.

Though unlikely, the protesters could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted, said Auckland University Faculty of Law associate professor Warren Brookbanks.

“They’re not going to get imprisonment at all, it would probably be dealt with by a fine, I would think. Or if they have a good lawyer they might be able to successfully persuade the court to convict and discharge them.”

Mr Brookbanks said Lawless’ lawyer would most likely seek a discharge without conviction which would allow her to continue to travel to the United States – where she frequently works – without any problems.

“[A conviction] could seriously impair her ability to travel to countries like the United States, where they take criminal convictions very seriously.”

Mr Brookbanks was surprised police chose to charge the protesters with burglary – defined by the Crimes Act as breaking and entering into any building or ship without authority and with intent to commit a crime.

“They could have charged them with being in an enclosed yard or disorderly behaviour or something like that. It strikes me that this is an element of overkill,” he said.

Lucy Lawless

Lucy Lawless, Television actress Lucy Lawless climbed aboard an oil-drilling ship Friday in New Zealand, joining six Greenpeace activists to try to stop the vessel from setting off for the Arctic.

Speaking from atop a 53-metre drilling tower aboard the Noble Discoverer in Port Taranaki, Lawless told The Associated Press on Friday that wind gusts were making it difficult to stay put but that she and the other protesters planned to stay there for “as long as we possibly can.” She said she had a “little bit” of food and some provisions with her.

The protesters hung banners from the drilling derrick reading “Stop Shell” and “(hashtag)SaveTheArctic.”

The ship is chartered by oil company Shell. Shona Geary, the company’s New Zealand spokeswoman, said the ship was due to leave over the weekend for a drilling program in the Arctic but that all operations aboard had come to a stop.

“We are taking a very calm and measured approach to this,” she said.

Police spokesman Grant Ogilvie said early Friday afternoon that five police officers boarded the ship. They had made contact with the protesters and were trying to determine their intentions. The port remained open but access was restricted, Ogilvie said.

“The protesters are clearly breaking the law by trespassing on the ship,” said Police Inspector Blair Telford in a statement.

Lawless, 43, a New Zealander, is best known for her title role in “Xena: Warrior Princess.” More recently she has starred in “Spartacus: Blood and Sand.”

Lawless said she was taking direct protest action for the first time in her life to protest oil drilling and to draw attention to climate change.

“I’ve got three kids. My sole biological reason for being on this planet is to ensure that they can flourish, and they can’t do that in a filthy, degraded environment,” she said. “We need to stand up while we still can.”

Greenpeace spokesman Nathan Argent said the ship was due to drill five exploratory wells during the Arctic summer. He said Greenpeace is concerned about the rush of companies trying to drill in the Arctic and the potential for catastrophic spills in the ecologically sensitive region.

“The oil companies are pushing the frontiers in the Arctic,” he said. “There’s a relentless push to get the last drops of oil.”

In a statement, Shell said the actions of Greenpeace were jeopardizing everybody’s safety.