Press Releases & Updates 2005

Adam was one of a group of activists who painted the slogans on the gateway and buildings at the site. He told Helensburgh District Court that our nuclear weapons were a stain on the country and that his motivation for painting the slogans (“Evil; Illegal; WMD”) had been to expose the reality of these weapons in the face of the deception and hypocrisy with which they are surrounded.

Cross examining, the Procurator Fiscal amused the public gallery by asking Adam whether he had had permission from the MoD to carry out the painting. Adam gave the obvious reply and added that the MoD had not sought his permission to deploy Trident.

In summing up Adam argued that the main motivation among the public for obeying the law was not fear of sanctions but the recognition that the law, at least potentially, was an expression of our common morality. If the principles of justice and morality are not embedded in the application of the law, then it becomes a matter of meaningless rules.

Justice of the Peace Viv Dance took the view that she had to apply the law as it stood and she found him guilty, giving him a lower than normal fine to take account of his financial circumstances and the fact that he had been held in police custody for an unreasonably long period at the time of the offence due to a clerical error over a warrant. He told her that he was unlikely to pay it.

Later the Crown deserted the case against the Reverend Colin Morton for a breach of the peace at the blockade of Faslane in April 2003. This was due to the Procurator Fiscal’s realisation that the trial would be lengthy due to the number of defence witnesses and would not be completed on the day. Like Alan Wilkie before him Colin was set to argue that he was the subject of discrimination when police at the blockade arrested him, but did not arrest a group whose conduct was identical to his. The group who were not arrested included MSP Tommy Sheridan, Carolyn Leckie (who was a defence witness today) and other candidates for the Scottish Parliament elections which were held the following week.

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