Press Releases & Updates 2001

On 1st February 1999 Rachel and Rosie swam to and boarded the Trident nuclear weapon submarine HMS Vengeance, then docked at Barrow-in-Furness. They draped banners, painted slogans and damaged testing equipment on the conning tower.

Yesterday, the 2nd October, the Crown case closed with the testimony of Michael Warner, the detective who interviewed the two activists. Under cross-examination from defence barrister Marguerite Russell the officer confirmed that security was so slack on the night in question that any number of people could have slipped away unnoticed. He told Rachel that her dismantling work was on a "more permanent basis than normal".

Giving her testimony Rosie told the court their action had been taken against a backdrop of heightened international tension, with Operation Desert Fox ongoing and Foreign Secretary Robin Cook not ruling out nuclear attacks on Iraq by the UK. February 1999 was the last chance, she believed at the time, to stop HMS Vengeance leaving Barrow. This would have cut the available nuclear strike force 25%. Had she and Rachel had terrorist intentions they could easily have planted mines and slipped away again.

In her testimony Rachel said that Trident was not an ornament, it was there to be used. That is why they had to act. She described how it would be legal to slash the tyres of a car bomb: that was all they had done, they had damaged the transport system of a dreadful weapon before it could be used. When the prosecution suggested that they had acted for publicity, Rachel was adamant. "At the time I did it to stop Vengeance from going out. The action spoke for itself".

It is expected that the defence will call only one more witness, Professor Paul Rogers of Bradford University. Unless the final speeches and the judge’s summing up are very long it is likely that the jury will at least begin deliberations today.

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