Press Releases & Updates 2000

Their trial comes just a week after the legality of Britain’s Trident nuclear weapons has been debated in Scotland’s highest court.

The two are Joy Mitchell, aged 67, a retired head teacher from Berwick and leader of the town’s Peace Church, and Joan Meredith, aged 71, a retired teacher of the deaf from Alnwick. They are due to stand trial at Helensburgh District Court north of Glasgow, charged with `malicious mischief’ after they tried to cut into RNAD Coulport with bolt-cutters, in August 1999.(1) They are also charged with `breach of the peace’ for taking part in a blockade earlier the same month. They carried out both their protest actions during a Trident Ploughshares camp.(2)

Both Joan and Joy have been in court before for their anti-nuclear campaigning, Joy most recently in Helensburgh District Court on 25th October 2000 (for taking part in a blockade of Faslane in February 2000), and Joan in Alnwick Magistrates’ Court on 7th August 2000 (for non-payment of a fine arising from a blockade at Faslane in May 1999). They will be using a variety of legal and moral arguments to defend their actions. Their trials come as 3 High Court judges are considering their verdicts in a top-level legal review (called a Lord Advocate’s Reference) of the acquittal of 3 women at Greenock Sheriff’s Court in October 1999, for damaging a Trident-related test laboratory.(3)

Speaking from her home in Berwick tonight, Joy Mitchell said, "The Lord Advocate’s Reference has made legal history, with Scotland’s most senior lawyers debating the legality of Trident under international law. A verdict on the issues is expected shortly after the New Year. The District Court in Helensburgh cannot hide from the debate for much longer, and will then have to consider our arguments that Trident’s deployment is illegal under international law."

Joy and Joan are due at Helensburgh District Court on Tuesday 28th November. To contact them on the day, for news of the trial, ring mobile 07775711054. For interviews before Tuesday, ring Joy Mitchell on 01289 330351 or Joan Meredith on 01665 579291. Other contacts below.

NOTES FOR EDITORS:

(1) The Royal Naval Armaments Depot (RNAD) Coulport is situated on Loch Long, and holds the Trident warheads when they are not loaded onto the submarines, which are normally based at the Faslane naval base on the nearby Gareloch. 4 submarines are in operation, with one on active patrol 24 hours per day, armed with up to 48 100-kiloton warheads, each 8 times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb. A conservative estimate of the number of casualties, arising from an attack using all 48 warheads against likely military targets in the Moscow area, suggests that 3 million people would be killed within 12 weeks, including 750,000 children.

(2) Trident Ploughshares is an international campaign of people committed to taking safe, non-violent direct action against Trident-related facilities, and to being accountable for their actions before the courts. There have been 775 arrests since the campaign began in 1998, with 764 days spent in prison. The next major event is in February 2001, when a coach from the region is expected to join hundreds of people at a mass blockade of Faslane.

(3) Sheriff Margaret Gimblett acquitted the 3 women, after accepting their defence that the deployment of Trident represents an illegal threat under international humanitarian law. This judgement is the subject of the Lord Advocates Reference at Edinburgh High Court, which finished hearing submissions on 17th November.

Printer friendly version

Home | Top