View
comments
Police are hunting a Church of England vicar who brought the M25 to a standstill with Insulate Britain after he failed to turn up at court on a criminal damage charge.
Rev Mark Coleman, 62, was arrested after spraying messages on the windows of Tory MP Chris Clarkson before staging a sit in.
He was due to attend Manchester Magistrates Court this week for his first appearance but a warrant was issued for his arrest after he failed to show.
The warrant was not backed for bail meaning Coleman, of Falinge, Rochdale, will be locked up when found pending his next appearance in court.
No reason was given for the clergyman's no-show on Wednesday but his Twitter account showed a picture of him in London on Tuesday burning court injunction papers served on him following his protest group's blocking of the M25 motorway.
He had no solicitor representing him at the hearing. He was tannoyed to attend but when there was no response JP Joe Bangudu said: 'In the case of Reverend Michael Coleman, the court will issue a warrant not backed by bail.'
Coleman, who was the former vicar of St Chad's and St Mary's churches in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, was reported to police in March after staging his demo.
He modelled it on the protest scene in the 2016 Ken Loach movie I, Daniel Blake about a middle aged carpenter's battle to get state handouts after injuring himself.
The message scrawled on the windows of the constituency officers of
