High Court clears Greenpeace protester

The High Court has quashed the conviction and sentencing of a Greenpeace activist involved in a climate protest.

On May 8, 2016, Paul Grajewski took part in an environmental protest at the Port of Newcastle.

The Sydney man climbed onto a ship loader, which was shut down due to safety concerns, using a harness and rope to lock himself to the loader and lowered himself into a risky position, hanging about 10 metres above a platform.

The ship loader remained inoperable for about two hours until he was removed.

Grajewski was convicted and fined $1000 in the Newcastle Local Court on a charge of doing damage which caused the temporary impairment of the working machinery of the ship loader.

His appeal to the District Court in 2017 was dismissed, as the court found there had been enough interference with the functioning of the machinery to establish "damage" under the Crimes Act.

However, a majority of the High Court on Wednesday found in his favour and quashed his conviction and sentence.

The High Court found damage to property required proof that "a person's act or omission has occasioned some alteration to the physical integrity of the property, even if only temporarily".

The ship loader had been shut down because of safety concerns, not because Grajewski had "brought about any alteration to its physical integrity", the court found.