Tuesday 27 September 2022 07:20 AM Climate change pest who blocked one of Australia's busiest roads trends now

The climate activist who paralysed Sydney when she chained herself to her steering wheel on one of the city's busiest roads during peak hour traffic will not be fined or jailed after a magistrate dismissed all her charges on mental health grounds. 

Mali Cooper, 22, was one of the Blockade Australia protesters who were slapped with multiple obstruction and disruption offences after they sensationally blocked the entrance to the Sydney Harbour Bridge in June.

They had faced charges of disrupting traffic and obstructing drivers or pedestrians following a Blockade Australia protest in Sydney's CBD and near the bridge in June. 

On Tuesday morning, the 22-year-old appeared in Lismore Local Court, where she risked being slapped with a two-year sentence and a $22,000 fine.

In dismissing the charges without conviction under the Mental Health Act, magistrate Jeff Linden discharged Mali Cooper into the care of a psychologist for six months. 

'We are very relieved that the court calmly considered all of the facts in this case, including the psychological impact of climate change upon young people like Mali,' their lawyer Mark Davis said in a statement. 

He said the court 'gave full consideration' to his client's pre-existing anxiety disorder which 'was profoundly impacted, exacerbated by the Lismore floods and her concerns about climate change to such a degree that it was clinically diagnosed after the Lismore floods as PTSD'.

'Seeing (their) hometown of Lismore destroyed twice in the months preceding (their) action induced a trauma in (them) that was a decisive factor in today's decision.'

He said Cooper 'probably went a step further than she intended' when it came to the protest and that she regretted the distress it created for those in the traffic jam.

He said she 'decided to do something that in a more rational state she might not have done' after seeing Lismore 'obliterated twice in just a couple of months'. 

Cooper had said they had watched the town they loved being decimated by a climate disaster.

'The terrifying reality of climate breakdown is here, this town is still living it,' they said.