Press Releases & Updates 2004

Joan was charged with a breach of the peace at the base on August 6th last year, when she was one of number of people lying down in the main gateway in symbolic commemoration of those who had been the victims of the first atomic bomb 58 years previously.

Joan told Helensburgh District Court: "My grandchildren have a right to grow up in a world free from violence and terror. A culture of nuclearism means just that. But we cannot have a world that recognises human rights if we do not take our human responsibilities seriously. Having experienced one war and the advent of the atomic bomb I would be failing in my human responsibilities not to protest against a government ready to repeat the wicked catastrophe of Hiroshima. Lying down on the road that day was an outward and visible sign that I believe in peace."

I was sixteen years old when this bomb was dropped. I did not read about or glean it secondhand and I have a moral duty to protest about it while I am still alive. What I did was reasonable in the circumstances. Nuclear submarines are not reasonable in any circumstances."

Justice of the Peace John Duncan found her guilty and began to say that because of her age, he would only admonish her. Joan broke in and told him not to take that into account, since she had no intention of changing her ways. The JP, however, adhered to his decision.

At the other end of the age spectrum the court accepted the not guilty plea of Bryony Macleod (17), a student from Edinburgh when for the second time a prosecution witness was unavailable.

* In the Scottish criminal justice a person found guilty of an offence can be “admonished”, literally reprimanded, which means that no sanction is applied. Usually this means that the judge says “ I am admonishing you” without issuing a reprimand in specific terms.

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