Press Releases & Updates 2001

On 12th February this year she sat down with others in the roadway leading to the north gate of the naval base. Conducting her own defence before Justice of the Peace John Macphail, Dr. Lucas elicited from Crown witnesses and from witnesses for the defence that her actions and those of her fellow protesters had been completely peaceful and non-violent.

In a lengthy legal submission she told the court that a breach of the peace had to involve behaviour that was genuinely alarming and disturbing and there was no evidence of this. Under the European Convention on Human Rights she had a right to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly - and peaceful assembly on a highway was not necessarily unlawful. Her action was justified under international law and the Scottish High Court had erred in its judgment on the Lord Advocate’s Reference when it said that the strictures of the International Court of Justice against nuclear weapons only applied in time of war.

Procurator Fiscal McRae based the Crown case on the fact that she sat in the roadway, did not stop doing so when asked and intended to prevent traffic entering the base. JP Macphail fined her £150 with 28 days to pay.

Earlier Kreb Dragonrider (44) was given his freedom after spending five weeks in Greenock Prison. Today Kreb was found guilty of a breach of the peace at the October 22nd blockade of Faslane and pled guilty to failing to appear at court. Due to the time he had served in prison on remand he was simply admonished on both charges.

David Mackenzie said: "There was not one shred of evidence that Caroline had breached the peace at the Big Blockade and she demolished the charge brilliantly line by line as well as giving an extremely thorough legal analysis. None of this, of course, had any effect on the automatic response of the JP."

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