Two Just Stop Oil protesters who scaled a bridge on a busy crossing, causing gridlock when police closed the bridge to traffic, have been found guilty of causing a public nuisance.

Morgan Trowland, 40, and Marcus Decker, 34, used ropes and other climbing equipment to shuffle up the cables of the QEII Bridge on the Dartford Crossing, prosecutor Adam King told Basildon Crown Court, earlier in the trial.

He said they ascended to a point close to 200ft above the road and unfurled a “giant Just Stop Oil banner” and “rigged up hammocks and stayed there”.

The Queen Elizabeth II Bridge was closed from 4am on October 17 last year to 9pm the following day, the prosecutor said.

During the trial, the court heard from dozens of victims who were impacted by the actions of Trowland and Decker.

Those impacted included: A heavily pregnant woman who needed urgent medical help; a child with additional needs who could not access his medication; one business lost a total of £24,000; a person who missed the funeral of their best friend of 35 years; a care provider lost £363 in earnings and could not provide essential care for patients; a business which lost between £160,000 and £170,00 in earnings; a clinical lead nurse could not make crucial child appointments; and a woman who could not access an important medical appointment and was in pain.

“This closure caused gridlock for miles around throughout that period, which we say was the point,” said Mr King.

“It was because of the disruption that the incident made national news.”

He continued: “Small businesses lost, in some cases, hundreds of thousands of pounds, people missed loved ones’ funerals, children were left on the side of the road waiting for buses.”

A Medway dad also said he was left more than £2,000 out of pocket after missing a flight due to the chaos caused by the protests.

Chris Armstrong, 58, was stuck on the M25 for more than six hours despite leaving his home in Wainscott at 2pm, expecting to fly to Bangkok from Stansted airport at 9.10pm.

Mr King said the men came down at about 5.30pm on October 18 “with the help of police and a very tall cherry picker crane”, but the bridge was not reopened to traffic until later.

He told jurors: “We’re not here to litigate the government’s climate change policy.”

Trowland had said in evidence: “We climbed it (the bridge) to deliver a warning message, to put up a banner saying Just Stop Oil and to speak that message through interviews with journalists.”

He said the activist group’s goal was to get the government to stop licensing oil and gas production.

“That is putting fuel on the fire of climate change,” he added.

Trowland, of Islington, north London, and Decker, 34, of no fixed address, denied causing a public nuisance.

They were found guilty by a jury by unanimous verdicts following more than two hours of deliberation.

Judge Shane Collery KC remanded them in custody to be sentenced on April 13.

He said: “This court is considering custodial sentences. We’re dealing with significant nuisance that’s been caused.”

Chief Superintendent Simon Anslow, who led Essex Police's response to the protest, said: “The actions of Trowland and Decker were incredibly dangerous; for themselves, for the officers who were tasked with dealing with them and for the many, many people whose lives were disrupted as a result.

“We know they both saw – and continue to see – their actions as protest. They were not. Their actions were juvenile and dangerous. That behaviour should never be repeated.

“In order to bring them down safely, I had to ask a small group of officers to take on a really dangerous task - to work at significant height and in difficult weather conditions to bring down two people who had voluntarily put themselves at risk.

“These officers deserve immense credit for their actions on October 18 last year in bringing that situation to safe conclusion.”

Chief Supt Anslow added: “Since then, there have been a team of investigators working incredibly hard behind the scenes to build strong cases against Trowland and Decker and supply the Crown Prosecution Service with the evidence which has led to the conviction of both men. Their work has been tireless.

“The right to legitimate protest is not something we would ever seek to stop. We recognise that right and will always seek to safely facilitate it. But there can be no doubt that the actions of Trowland and Decker in October last year went far beyond that. It was criminal nuisance and greatly impacted many people.

“It was only thanks to victims coming forward that we have been able to show the impact on the public across those hours and we are very thankful for the people who have submitted their stories to us.”