Two days into a four-day trial, five anti-nuclear activists were found not guilty of aggravated trespass after a blockade in 2008 of the Sizewell nuclear power station in Suffolk.
Lowestoft magistrates’ court decided on 29 September that the prosecution had failed to provide evidence that the defendants – Rebecca Dale, Mell Harrison, Pete Lux, Nicola Stikles and Irene Willis – were on private land.
They therefore could not be proven guilty of trespassing on private land. At the action, in July 2008, the defendants held up a banner reading “Nuclear Power is Not a Solution to Climate Chaos” as they physically blocked (with their bodies and arm tubes) the sole access road to the Sizewell nuclear power plant.
The defendants had planned to use the defence that they were acting to prevent breaches of health and safety legislation resulting from the continued operation of the nuclear power plant in Suffolk. They had planned to call at least one expert witness, Dr Ian Fairlie, an independent nuclear consultant, but the judge refused to allow this on the first day of trial.
Topics: Nuclear power