Trials & legal cases

A celebration of the ground-breaking right-to-protest decision

On 25 June 2021, the supreme court of the United Kingdom delivered a landmark judgement on the right to protest, ruling that deliberately obstructive protest can be legal.

Dozens of direct action cases have already benefited from the Ziegler judgement, including that of the Colston Four.

The supreme court reached their historic decision when considering the case of four Christian peace activists who had…

Two slogan-covered boxes are bundled out of a van in East London. People lie down on the road next to the boxes.

Within seconds, the police are there.

So are the activists’ support team and other protesters.

DSEI, one of the biggest arms fairs in the world, is being set up in the nearby ExCeL Centre.

Within minutes, the four people lying in the road – Chris Cole, Henrietta Cullinan, Jo Frew and Nora Ziegler – have been arrested.

*

This small action,…

Judge Crabtree warned us that while judgements in magistrates’ courts usually take between 45 minutes and two hours, this one was likely to take considerably longer. He was right; his judgement took three-and-a-half hours. But it was a judgement worth waiting for.

Six activists were being prosecuted for ‘aggravated trespass’ for occupying trees along the route of the Bexhill-Hastings Link Road in January 2013 (see PN 2554, 2566).

The first two hours or so of the hearing in…

There have been anti-arms trade legal victories connected to protests at the defence & security equipment international (DSEI) arms fair last September. On 4 February, five Christian protesters (Chloe Skinner, Christopher Wood, Daniel Woodhouse, James Clayton and Symon Hill) were acquitted of aggravated trespass. On 18 February, charges were dropped against six other activists. During Balcombe-related anti-fracking trials at Brighton magistrates’ court at the end of January, Aaron Bell was…

Grannies Are In Action (GAIA) set up a ‘car wash’ in the
floodwaters of Combe Haven, East Sussex, on 12 January.
Photo: Marta Lefler

Over half the charges against Combe Haven Defenders (CHD) anti-roads protesters have been dropped or abandoned, or have resulted in not guilty verdicts, in the four trials so far concluded. At the time of going to press two trials were still underway, continuing into early February.

CHD, an East Sussex anti-roads group…

On 10 and 13 January, Reading magistrates court dismissed charges of ‘obstruction of the highway’ against two groups of Trident Ploughshares (TP) activists because of procedural errors by the crown prosecution service (CPS).

On 10 January, Leonna O’Neill, Jamie Watson and Julia Mercer were on trial for their participation in the international Action AWE blockades outside the atomic weapons establishment (AWE) Burghfield on 2 September last year (see PN 2562). Julia Mercer had…

The protestors that day suffered ‘kettling’ (mass detention), charges by police horses and baton attacks. Alfie required emergency brain surgery after being struck by a police baton.

Like many others, Zak and Alfie were arrested and charged with serious public order offences. Some cases have resulted in prison sentences, including one of 12 months for a student for merely waving a placard stick. However, where students pleaded not guilty and described police brutality on the day, many…

Two census resisters had their trials continued in early October, with Andy Manifold due to return to court on 19 October and Sarah Ledsom hoping to finish her trial on 23 November. Both are at Dale St magistrates' court in Liverpool.

400 people in Britain have been or are being prosecuted for failing to fill out the 2011 census. 

Among them are a number of peace activists who objected to the involvement in the census of military firms Lockheed Martin (processing the data…

On 23 August, two Smash EDO activists were found guilty by Brighton magistrates court of aggravated trespass at the EDO MBM arms factory in Moulsecoomb.

Jessica Nero and Gavin Pidwell used superglue to lock themselves to the gates of the factory on 26 April, causing 100 lost hours of work, according to EDO managing director Paul Hills.

After several days of legal argument and evidence-giving about EDO’s breach of the Cluster Munitions Act (2010), magistrates fined the pair £…

On 17 September, the Metropolitan police finally fired the police officer who hit passerby Ian Tomlinson with a baton and pushed him to the ground during protests against the G20 in London in April 2009.

Despite the fact that a inquest jury found in May 2011 that Ian Tomlinson had been unlawfully killed by a police officer, PC Simon Harwood was…

Prosecutors failed to convict student protester Alfie Meadows of violent disorder at a trial in mid-April. The 21-year-old suffered a brain injury after being struck by a police baton at an anti-tuition fees demo in December 2010.

Though three other defendants were acquitted of the same offence, jurors were unable to reach a verdict in the case of Meadows and a fifth man, Zac King.

On 19 April, after a three-day trial, Harrogate magistrates’ court ruled that long-time peace activist Lindis Percy had ‘no case to answer’.

Lindis had been charged with ‘wilfully obstructing’ three Ministry of Defence police officers in the execution of their duty outside the spy base Menwith Hill in North Yorkshire on 16 August 2011.

District judge Jane Goodwin found the…

Accomplice Janet Fenton, who is secretary of Scottish CND, was given 120 hours community service.

In 2010, the women had appeared at the court accused of a breach of the peace during a blockade of Faslane naval base.

During their trial, the pair were barred from arguing the case that they had a right to disrupt the illegal work at Faslane under international humanitarian law. In response they painted slogans indicating the failure of the court to uphold international law.
…

I haven't written for a month or two due to personal circumstances but now I'm back in the land of the living I'd like you all to hear about a Manchester peace protester and his court cases. Usman Hamid (affectionately known as Mani) has protested for a long time often as a single protester with hand-written placards as well as in groups, and always, always peacefully. The Manchester Evening News (M.E.N.) covered his story recently, on…

Just the facts M'Lud...

On 22 March 2003, three coaches carrying around 120 protesters travelled to USAF Fairford from London for an anti-war demonstration. It was the first weekend of the Iraq War. They were stopped and searched at the village of Lechlade, three miles from Fairford. After being held for two hours they were let back on the coaches, but instead of being allowed to proceed to the authorised demonstration they were forcibly escorted, non-stop, back to London. (For…