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Press Releases & Updates 2002
7th July 2002
Granny Jailed For Hiroshima Day Protest
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Today a 72 year-old grandmother was given a seven day sentence in
Helensburgh District Court for refusing to pay a fine of £150 for her
part in a blockade of a nuclear weapons depot on Hiroshima Day, 6th
August, last year.
Joan Meredith, from Malpas in Cheshire, is a retired teacher of deaf
children, who has never been to jail before. But today she explained to
JP Dance that "I feel that paying this fine would be an admission that
my action in trying to prevent these terrible weapons of mass
destruction was a crime".
Her fine was imposed for breach of the peace for sitting down in the
gateway of the Coulport Armaments Depot on the shores of Loch Long in
Scotland, where nuclear warheads are loaded on to Britain’s Trident
submarines.
When offered time to think over her decision, Joan Meredith quietly told
the judge "There is no point - I will not pay, whatever you decide".
In a case immediately following, an environmental engineer, Warren
Canham, was found guilty of obstruction of the highway for his part in
last October’s blockade of Faslane Naval Base, when over 170 people were
arrested.
Despite referring to the case of MSP Tommy Sherridan, who was arrested
at the same demonstration but found not guilty, Warren Canham was found
guitly and fined £120. Despite having seen Joan Meredith removed from
court to prison, he informed the court that he would also refuse to pay.
The judge gave him one month to consider.
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