Press Releases & Updates 2000

Background

Rosie James and Rachel Wenham will face charges of £25,000 worth of damage to the Trident nuclear submarine Vengeance in Barrow shipyard on the night of 1st February 1999. The two swam out to the submarine and used hammers to disarm equipment on the conning tower. They also sprayed messages of peace, and hung a banner on the submarine declaring ’Women Want Peace’.

The two women are part of the international Trident Ploughshares campaign, which has pledged to openly, non-violently and accountably disarm Britain’s nuclear weapons system.

Government policy on trial

This case comes shortly after the landmark Greenock judgement of October 1999, at which Judge Gimblett instructed a Scottish jury to acquit three other Trident Ploughshares activists charged with damaging a Trident nuclear weapons facility at Loch Goil in Scotland. This was the first British judge and jury to hear and accept a defence of the illegality of Trident nuclear weapons based on international law.

Rosie James and Rachel Wenham will also mount a defence based both on moral arguments and on the 1996 International Court of Justice Advisory opinion on the illegality of nuclear weapons. Gareth Pierce, who successfully defended the Guildford Four, will be acting for both women.

Defendant Rachel Wenham said "We are confident this case is winnable."

Expectations are high that an English jury will now hear the same legal and moral arguments which led a Scottish court to acquit.

Further press information

Press packs with background information, contacts before and during the trial, and details of photographs and interviews are available from: 07808 553 778 or awtt@hotmail.com.

Printer friendly version

Home | Top