Passengers at risk of injury or worse ‘Stansted Fifteen’ activist tells court

Quaker activist on trial for terror-related charges gives evidence

The Quaker activist on trial for blocking the take-off of an immigration removal charter flight gave evidence in court recently that she was acting out of conscience to protect the passengers’ human rights.

Lyndsay Burtonshaw, from Brighton Meeting, told the court she believed the deportees on board risked possible torture, serious injury or death if they were deported. Along with other members of the ‘Stansted Fifteen’, she is facing terror-related charges with maximum possible sentence of life imprisonment.

The group. aged twenty-seven to forty-four, have all pleaded not guilty to charges relating to endangering the safety of an aerodrome by chaining themselves together around a Titan Airways flight chartered by the Home Office to remove sixty people to Nigeria, Ghana and Sierra Leone.

Speaking at court in week five of what is expected to be a seven-week trial, Lyndsay Burtonshaw said: ‘There were people that were going to die if I hadn’t taken action. I had no question in my mind that I had to take action… I could not look into my conscience deeply and not break the law.’

Other defendants told the court that they had amassed sufficient evidence to shaw that passengers were being deported when they ought to be given asylum to protect their human rights. The court heard that a Nigerian woman on the plan appealing against her refused claim for asylum by the Home Office had received death threats from her ex-husband.

A co-defendant, Benjamin Smoke, from the Lesbians and Gays Support the Migrants group, said: ‘She said that her ex-husband has called her and said something along the lines of: “We know you are coming and we are going to kill you when you get here.”’

According to the prosecution, the activists placed the airport staff and passengers at risk. However, the co-defendants said that they had taken safety measures, including wearing brightly coloured clothing, carrying low-voltage lights and a visible banner to show people who and where they were.

The action on 28 March 2017 at Stansted Airport resulted in the police spending several hours trying to cut the protesters free from ‘lock-on’ devices they had used to secure themselves around the plane.

Lyndsay Burtonshaw also quoted part of Advices & queries 35: ‘Respect the laws of the state but let your first loyalty be to God’s purposes. If you feel impelled by strong conviction to break the law, search your conscience deeply.’

Chelmsford Meeting have been supporting the defendants and allowing them to use the Meeting house as a hub.

Jean Wardrop, from Chelmsford Meeting, said: ‘Lyndsay had been struck by the desperate situation of those in the asylum system. When she heard that there were going to be people on that plane that were in imminent danger, she felt impelled to do something and stop that flight.’

All fifteen protestors are charged with intentional disruption of services at an aerodrome under the 1990 Aviation and Maritime Security Act, a law passed in response to the 1988 Lockerbie bombing.

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