AN ANTI-FRACKING protestor has been given a 12-month conditional discharge after he changed his plea to guilty on a charge of obstructing the highway between Kirby Misperton and Little Barugh on October 2.

When Adeyinka Yinka Lawal, 66, of Birdcage Walk, Chipping Camden near Gloucester entered his guilty plea at York Magistrates Court, the prosecution dropped charges of assaulting a police officer and assaulting a security guard allegedly committed in the same place on the same day.

In addition to the discharge, he was ordered to pay £100 prosecution costs and a £20 statutory surcharge.

Lawal had previously served a week in custody for contempt of court after he refused to stand when brought into the dock at an earlier hearing.