The Extinction Rebellion campaigners admitted using hammers and chisels to break windows at HSBC in Canary Wharf in the morning of 22 April 2021, but denied this was criminal conduct.

They were protesting against the bank's investments in coal and for facilitating other fossil fuel financing.

They wore patches with the words "better broken windows than broken promises" - a phrase coined by the Suffragettes - and put up stickers on the windows saying: "£80 billion into fossil fuels in the last 5 years."

According to the group, the jury made several requests for further information during the course of the trial, including for an explanation of the Paris Climate Agreement, information on what the British government had done to address the climate crisis and an explanation as to how HSBC was able to come up with the estimated cost of the damage to the windows - just over half a million pounds - within hours of the action.

The jury returned a not guilty verdict after two hours of deliberation.

The nine women - including 40-year-old Extinction Rebellion co-founder and sustainable fashion lecturer Clare Farrell - all denied criminal damage.

The other eight defendants were: Jessica Agar, 23, Holly (Blyth) Brentnall, 32, Valerie Brown, 71, Eleanor (Gully) Bujak, 30, Miriam Instone, 25, Tracey Mallaghan, 47, Susan Reid, 65, and 41 year-old former fashion designer Samantha Smithson.

British fashion designer Stella McCartney lent the women shirts, blazers and suits to wear during the three-week trial. The jury returned the verdict on Thursday.

The climate activist group is known for previous tactics - including blocking a London Tube train - that involved disrupting the general public's every day life.

However, it announced in January that it was ditching such methods for fear of alienating the public and later admitted blocking the train was a mistake.

Following the verdict, Extinction Rebellion co-founder Clare Farrell, said: "This was a trial of unusual agreement, the facts of the day were not in any dispute, and the fact that we're on course for civilisational breakdown and climate collapse seemed strangely not to be in dispute either.

"It's tragically surreal to live in times when the justice system agrees we're totally f****d but has nothing to say about the cause, the remedy, the victims or the perpetrators. We must continue, we will."

Grandmother and retired community care worker from Preston, Susan Reid, said she took part to protect children from the damage wreaked by burning fossil fuels, funded by groups like HSBC.

"Unicef estimated that over 20,000 children are displaced each day, and that climate change is the key driver," she said.

"That means over the course of our three-week trial, over twenty thousand children have had to pick up the things around them and leave."

HSBC declined to comment.