Trident peace activists found guilty
Peace activists convicted on wilful obstruction of the highway
Five peace activists were found guilty on 26 January in Reading Magistrates’ Court of wilful obstruction of the highway.
On 27 June 2016, using lock-on tubes and superglue, the five Christians blockaded the road leading to Burghfield Atomic Weapons Establishment (AWE) in Berkshire, where the Trident nuclear warheads are assembled.
As the defendants lay in the road declaring that they had ‘no faith in Trident’ they were joined in support by Christians from around the UK in protest ahead of the vote in parliament on Trident renewal.
The convictions came even though another five activists, who blocked a different entrance on the same day, were acquitted in December after the judge threw out the prosecution’s case as the police had failed to follow their own procedures (see ‘Witness at Burghfield’, 27 January).
Other activists involved on the day were given a conditional discharge.
The five defendants – Nina Carter-Brown, Nick Cooper, Angela Ditchfield, Joanna Frew and Alison Parker – are members of Put Down the Sword, a Christian nonviolence group. Some are also members of the Peace Pledge Union (PPU), which includes pacifists of several religions and none.
At the start of the trial Nick Cooper stated: ‘The ongoing threat of a global nuclear holocaust is already terrifying enough. The last thing we need are missiles going off course and a seemingly respectable prime minister who misleads parliament and the public.’
After the first day of the trial Nina Carter-Brown said: ‘I was arrested and am on trial because of my Christian faith, which is in no way compatible with support for weapons of mass destruction. I could not stand by and watch as the government voted to replace Trident at an obscene cost without knowing I had done everything I could to oppose it.’ When the prosecuting counsel suggested to Nina Carter-Brown that ‘you could have moved, couldn’t you?’ she replied: ‘No, because my conscience wouldn’t allow it.’
The judge, who said he admired the defendants, gave them a six-month conditional discharge and ordered them each to pay £120 in costs, considerably lower than the £920 each that the Crown Prosecution Service had asked for.
On behalf of the PPU, Symon Hill said: ‘This is the latest in a string of trials of nonviolent activists. They are a reminder that pacifism is not passive. Pacifists reject both violence and passivity in favour of nonviolent resistance to war and injustice.’
