FOUR anti-fracking protestors who called themselves “bat girls” have been convicted of obstructing the highway.

Becky Bostock, 36, of Hawthorne Avenue, Thornbury, Bradford; Michelle Catherine Easton, 37, of Northway, Glastonbury, Somerset; Susan Linda Gough, 63, of Greenland Lane, Little Barugh, Malton, and Louise Hammond, 55, now living in an anti-fracking camp near Doncaster, were all part of a group protesting on Habton Road, Kirby Misperton, against Third Energy’s preparatory work for fracking on September 25.

All four denied the charge, but were convicted after a trial at York Magistrates Court. A separate charge under trade union laws against all four, which they also denied, was dropped by the prosecution.

Easton and Gough were given 12-month conditional discharges and ordered to pay £150 prosecution costs each. Hammond, whose conviction breached a conditional discharge imposed for a similar offence committed in August 2017 in Buxton, was conditionally discharged for two years and ordered to pay £100 prosecution costs. All three were ordered to pay a £20 statutory surcharge. Bostock will be sentenced at a later date.