Press Releases & Updates 2004

On 15th September last year, a 7.30 a.m., Sue from Ayrshire, Roz from Edinburgh and Marilyn from Glasgow, locked themselves to each other using a steel and a plastic tube and lay down in the gateway of the Loch Long base. It was 10 a.m. before they were finally removed. They held a sign saying "Where are the WMD?" since at the time of their action “coalition” forces were scouring Iraq for signs of Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction

Appearing for Sue solicitor Clare Ryan told Justice of the Peace Viv Dance that the opinion of the Scottish High Court on five appeals against breach of the peace convictions, which was issued yesterday, stated that it was up to the justice to assess whether, in the particular circumstances of the case, a reasonable person might have been alarmed or put in a state of fear by the behaviour of the accused. Clare argued that in this day and age, given the very frequent protests against the Iraq war, the women’s action did not constitute a breach of public decorum, nor was it likely to cause a reasonable person to be alarmed.

Marilyn told the court that the government had attempted to justify the war by saying that WMD were ready to be fired from Iraq given 45 minutes warning. So far no WMD had been found there but they were right here, a few miles from the courtroom. Reasonable people were more likely to be alarmed by the 30,000 deaths in Iraq and the chaos that had ensued than by a peaceful protest.

JP Dance had an idiosyncratic take on the High Court opinion. Accepting that the context was critical she said that the context was defined by the "flagrant" behaviour of the accused. Referring to the claim of the accused that a reasonable person was more likely to be alarmed by the WMD in Coulport than by three women lying peaceably in the road, she said they had wrongly assumed that the people in the vehicles knew that Coulport was a WMD base. She fined them £150 each.

A Trident Ploughshares spokesperson said: "Although little has changed since yesterday’s opinion from the High Court on breach of the peace, it is at least clearer that it is up to the justice to assess without bias whether a reasonable person would be alarmed by the behaviour of those accused. What is far from clear is the competence of the Helensburgh magistrates to make that assessment. In the meantime we will continue to raise the alarm against Trident".

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