Press Releases & Updates 2001

Alan McCombs (46), editor of the Scottish Socialist Voice, was charged with inciting people to push against a police line and causing a breach of the peace at the Big Blockade of Faslane in February. Alan represented himself. His witnesses confirmed that a police cordon was holding up to 200 protesters off the road and when the police tried to push them back people were being crushed against the crash barrier. When Alan remonstrated with the police to make more room he was grabbed and arrested. Throughout his defence Alan made continuous reference to Trident and gave a graphic account of the effects of nuclear weapons. Alan told the court that the protesters had come to have a peaceful protest, not to give the police hassle. Sheriff Vaughan said he was impressed with Alan’s arguments, accepted that there was sufficient doubt about the charge and acquitted him.

John Andrew Rossetter (24), a factory worker from Fort William, was charged with pushing violently against police lines and violently resisting arrest. He had been in the same group as Alan McCombs. Sheriff Vaughan did not accept all the Crown evidence but took the view that a breach of the peace had been committed. However, the Sheriff said he recognised that Andrew was a law-abiding person and was content to admonish him.

Alan McCombs said: "We claim the right to protest peacefully at Faslane and we are ready to take responsibility for our actions. At the same time the police and the Crown need to know we will defend ourselves strenuously on any trumped-up charge, like the one I was facing today."

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