Press Releases & Updates 2001

On 27th August, Jane (43), a peace campaigner from Helensburgh, was found guilty of a breach of the peace after taking part in an anti-Trident demonstration in the Parliament in April. Sentence was deferred until today to allow for Social Enquiry and Community Service reports.

Jane told Sheriff McKinnon that she was proud to have demonstrated in the debating chamber to draw attention to the immorality and illegality of indiscriminate weapons of mass murder. She asked him to put into perspective her protest which at worst had only annoyed Presiding Officer David Steel. If the court still intended to punish her, she asked the Sheriff not to impose a fine or a custodial sentence. She was quite willing to take responsibility herself for her actions but a fine or a prison sentence would impact on her family. She was prepared to do community service but pointed out that trying to rid the world as it stands today of weapons of mass destruction was the greatest service she could give to the world community.

Sheriff McKinnon noted that the Social Enquiry report said that there was a high risk of Jane continuing to offend and deferred sentence until next June. He said that Jane was an "intelligent" woman and could manage not to breach the peace.

Jane said: "It would have been better if the Sheriff had got on with the business and decided on the punishment there and then. It is no use having the intelligence to see what is going on in the world if you don’t have the courage to do something about it."

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