Press Releases & Updates 2001

Roger Franklin (72), from Horsley, Gloucestershire, Joan Meredith, aged 71 from Alnwick in Northumberland and Ulla Roder (45), from Odense in Denmark, are charged with causing criminal damage. Ulla is one of the "Trident Three" famously acquitted in October 1999 by a Scottish Sheriff Court after damaging a Trident research facility. Last May Roger, Joan and Ulla cut through the perimeter fence at the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston, where the components of Trident nuclear warheads are made.

Three expert witnesses yesterday gave testimony for the defence. Professor Frank Barnaby, a nuclear physicist who worked at Aldermaston in the 1950s, gave evidence about international law and the destructive power of Trident missiles. Professor Nick Grief, a barrister and Professor of Law at Bournemouth University, argued that UK courts had to take account of international humanitarian law and its applicability to Trident. William Peden, International Disarmament Campaigner for Greenpeace, gave evidence about the dangerous nature of the Aldermaston site.

A Trident Ploughshares spokesperson said:

"This was an encouraging day. Once again the legal spotlight is not on the defendants but on Trident, the real culprit."

The trial is expected to finish today.

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