Press Releases & Updates 2004

Ann Ogg argued on behalf of Gaynor Barrett that a peaceful protest at RNAD Coulport in August 1999 in which the protesters refused to move from the road did not constitute a Breach of the Peace. The Justice who sat in the original case at Helensburgh District Court said that someone could have been alarmed by the protest, but Ms Ogg submitted that there was nothing in the evidence to allow this conclusion to be reached and it therefore did not meet the test required for a conviction.

Finally the Solicitor General, Elish Angiolini QC, for the Crown, asked the court to uphold all the convictions. Commenting on the cases of the three anti-Trident protesters she said that if they had made their protest in a park, obstructing no-one and causing no disturbance, that would have been fine. Referring to the case of Jane Tallents she said that the solemnity of the Scottish Parliament had been disturbed by that demonstration. As for Gaynor Barrett and Margaret Jones who had blockaded the gates of the Coulport and Faslane Trident bases she said that if the protest had been allowed to continue it would have lead to ‘the breaking up of the social peace’

Jane Tallents said

‘The Crown conceded that the context had to be taken into account in deciding whether behavior could have caused alarm and fear. It therefore seems ironic the Mrs Angiolini thinks that the ‘social peace’ can be broken by a group of peaceful protesters committed to nonviolence when the bases they are sitting outside of are part of Trident a weapon of mass destruction with 100 kiloton warheads.’

The five-strong panel of judges (Lord Cullen, Lady Cosgrove, Lord McLean, Lord McFadyen and Lord Sutherland) is expected to give a judgment in a few months time.

Meanwhile today in Helensburgh District Court business continued as usual. Ellen Moxley was fined £60 for painting red footprints on the roadway outside the North gate of Faslane on Aug 6th (Hiroshima Day) last year. Monique D’Hooghe from the Netherlands was fined £100 for taking part in a blockade of Faslane on April 22 last year and Morag Forbes from Faslane Peace Camp was also fined £100 for contravening military byelaws by sitting up a tree all night inside the Oil Fuel Depot at Faslane last August.

Printer friendly version

Home | Top