Activist who powder-bombed World Snooker Championships has been arrested six times in a year

An activist who disrupted the World Snooker Championships last night (17 April) has been arrested six times in just a single year.

The Just Stop Oil protestor stormed The Crucible Theatre in Sheffield and opened a bag of bright neon orange powder onto the snooker table - interrupting the ongoing match between Joe Perry and Robert Milkins.

The man in question, a full-time student, has an equally colourful criminal record when it comes to defending the environment.

Just Stop Oil was quick to claim responsibility for the incident, releasing a statement to Twitter which read: "At around 7:20pm, two Just Stop Oil supporters have disrupted the World Snooker Championship at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, interrupting play."

Authorities confirmed: "Two people were detained after protesters gained entry to The Crucible.

"A 30-year-old man and a 52-year-old woman were arrested on suspicion of criminal damage. Both are in police custody."

One of the two protestors has since been identified as Edred Whittingham, a 25-year-old Politics, Philosophy and Economics student at Exeter University and last night's events were not his first run-in with the police.

The lad was sent to prison last year for blockading the Kingsbury Oil Terminal, revealing that his time incarcerated at HMP Birmingham was 'perfectly tolerable'.

Whittingham spent a matter of days in jail for the stunt.

I’m lost for words pic.twitter.com/Gqf5bKXlUu

— Out Of Context Snooker (@OOCSnooker) April 17, 2023

He also crowdfunds to support his 'civil resistance against the criminal UK government', according to his Buy Me A Coffee page.

Whittingham penned: "I have been arrested six times in one year and have spent a week in prison.

"Despite relentless warnings from the IPCC, the IEA and thousands upon thousands of climate scientists, the UK government is still allowing new fossil fuel licenses and consents."

Calling out to the public, the 25-year-old is asking people: "Help me stay afloat and stop this!

"My living costs are quite low, and any support you can offer means I can focus on my activism rather than needing to get a job in a pub!"

Another one of Whittingham's several arrests came after he glued his hand to a painting at Manchester Art Gallery in July of last year.

Alongside this, the activist has also been open with his views on parenthood and having children amid a severe climate crisis.

Speaking to GB News, he explained that he will refrain from having kids 'on moral grounds' due to the fact that he 'can't guarantee that there will be a habitable planet for them to grow up into'.

Whittingham continued: "I think it's the moral choice, given the circumstances we are facing."