Trials & legal cases

The “Lakenheath 8” are on trial at Bury St Edmunds court on 6, 10 and 11 July for SOCPA criminal trespass (and criminal damage), at USAF Lakenheath last October. Sylvia Boyes and Helen John are awaiting a trial date for their SOCPA criminal trespass at Menwith Hill a year ago. The judge wants proof from the prosecution that the US spy centre at Menwith Hill is an RAF base. The next hearing is on 8 June.

The week of anti-Trident demonstrations in mid-March saw arrests made under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 (SOCPA) both outside parliament and at Aldermaston.

Campaigners from Aldermaston Womens Peace Camp (AWPC) and Block the Builders brought Parliament Square to a halt on the day of the Trident debate (see story in news section). After four hours the last was released and then arrested - with eight others - for obstructing the highway and participating in an…

For the third time, a trial stemming from direct action at “RAF” Fairford, Gloucestershire, in 2003 - when activists tried to impede US bombing of Iraqis at the start of the attacks in March that year - has ended with a hung jury.

Josh Richards was charged with attempted arson, having being arrested while breaking into the base. He said he wanted to set fire to the tyres of planes so they could not be used to drop cluster bombs on Iraqi civilians, which would be a war crime. He also…

Mark Wallinger's “State Britain” installation, a loving recreation of the whole forty metres of Brian Haw's Parliament Square anti-war protest site in all its former glory, opened on 15 January at Tate Britain.

One week on, Brian was at Westminster Magistrates' Court to hear whether he had a case to answer for allegedly breaching conditions imposed on his demonstration last May.

His defence had asked for the case to be thrown out on two grounds, and…

On 11 October Phil Pritchard and Toby Olditch - the B52 Two - walked out of Bristol Crown Court after the jury failed to reach a conclusive verdict in their case for conspiracy to damage US warplanes.

This is the second Fairford disarmament case at Bristol to end inconclusively within the space of a few weeks. In September the jury in Margaret Jones and Paul Milling's case - for damage to USAF supply vehicles at the base - also ended with a hung jury. Both sets of defendants are…

On 15 September, Margaret Jones and Paul Millings criminal damage trial at Bristol Crown Court came to an end after the jury failed to reach a verdict.

The two peace activists were in court following their March 2003 action at USAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, where they had broken into the supply depot and damaged more than 30 auxiliary vehicles. The pair say this was a bid to delay the departure of bombers destined for Baghdad and to thus give more people time to flee the city.…

In what has been suggested was a unanimous verdict from the jury at Dublin's Four Courts, five ploughshares activists walked free on 25 July - more than three years after they had visited Shannon airport and damaged a US navy supply plane. The Irish airport was used extensively by the US during the build-up to and war on Iraq, something which campaigners firmly believe violates Ireland's stated neutrality.

After two previous trials, which both collapsed due to…

The Mole is fascinated by some of the strange cults found above ground. You might have noticed one which has been particularly prominent in recent weeks, which seems to be very into S&M imagery (that's S&M as in sado-masochism, not as in the abbreviation for what's left of Yugoslavia).

For what else is the innocent observer to make of models and pictures of a grisly 2000-year-old method of execution being flaunted everywhere? [“Jesus died for his own sins - not mine!” -Ed.]…

The recent case of the Aubonne Bridge Two - the trial of Swiss police officers who cut two activists' climbing ropes during a blockade of the Evian G8 and caused incredible injuries - ended, perhaps unsurprisingly, in the acquittal of the police officers involved.

In the run-up to the trial, in a statement published by their support group, they acknowledged the contradictions in initiating a case against the police, calling it “reformist”, but went on to explain why, in this instance…

In another life I was a teacher, and I recall that in the early nineties we used the tag Design Model to explain how injustice was embedded in formal educational institutions.

In the Scottish case the well-intentioned move to universal public education in the nineteenth century was underpinned by assumptions which gave us an institution (and buildings) designed for the a favoured group, which had the obvious characteristics of being white, male, middle class, able-bodied, straight,…

The latest round of cases against people accused of defying London's “no-protest zone” began towards the end of January: eleven individuals were scheduled to appear in four separate trials. All had been charged originally under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act (SOCPA) for being part of an “unauthorised demonstration”.

Under the new Act, anyone wishing to demonstrate within 1km of parliament must apply to the Metropolitan Police Commissioner at least six days in advance or,…

On 5 December, ten anti-Trident activists were each fined a total of £300 by a Scottish Sheriff who takes a dim view of people not doing exactly what the police tell them on every occasion. The activists were in bother for being the crew of a large model nuclear weapons submarine which blocked the street outside the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh on 10 March.

The ten were accused under the Roads (Scotland) Act with placing an obstruction in the roadway without reasonable…

The second trial of the “`Pitstop Ploughshares Five” dramatically collapsed in Dublin's Four courts last month after counsel for the Defence alleged the presiding judge had met George Bush in Texas in 1995, attended his presidential inauguration in 2001, and was invited by disgraced Senator Tom DeLay to attend the 2005 “coronation”.

The jury were dismissed by the judge after 10 days of evidence that included expert testimony from former UN Assistant Secretary General Denis Halliday…

On Friday 30 September, District Judge Peter Ward returned a verdict of guilty to the charges of Aggravated Trespass brought against six campaigners who had held a peaceful protest at Lancaster University more than a year before (see PN2462).

Dismissing the prosecution's and the University's claims that the six had intimidated University staff and conference delegates, Judge Ward nonetheless found them guilty because they had momentarily disrupted the conference. He also…

Campaigners scored a partial victory in the courts at the end of April when an attempt by EDO/MBM Technologies - Brighton's resident arms manufacturer - to create an exclusion zone around its factory, was temporarily thwarted (see PN2461 cover story).