Palestine Action activists jailed over factory raid

[Twiglets1]

The BBC report that four Palestine Action activists have been jailed after causing £1.2m of damage at a UK site of an Israel-based defence firm.

Charlotte Head, 30, Samuel Corner, 23, Leona Kamio, 30, and Fatema Rajwani, 21, were convicted of criminal damage in a retrial after they broke into the Elbit Systems factory near Bristol in August 2024.

Corner was jailed for seven years and eight months for criminal damage and inflicting grievous bodily harm on a police sergeant. The judge, Mr Justice Johnson, said Corner had had no justification for the "extreme and gratuitous force" used.

The case is believed to be the first time that convictions for criminal damage have been classified as being connected to terrorism.

The judge said their actions had aimed to influence the government.

Head, who drove the prison van into the compound, was sentenced to five years in prison, Kamio was also handed a five-year jail term, and Rajwani received a prison sentence of four years and eight months.

The offenders will not qualify for early release from prison provisions and the Parole Board will assess their risk to the public when it determines when they can be set free.

All four will also serve an additional one year on a licence in the community at the end of their terms.

Green Party Leader Zack Polanski said it was "gut-wrenching to see four young people jailed for direct action against an arms supplier to Israel".

He added that the sentence was a "truly dangerous attack on the right to protest".

Labour MP John McDonnell said the scale of the sentences was "truly shocking".

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ce950111xk7o

I think there'll be much more of this type of heavy sentencing across the political spectrum. The state is currently in a bit of a panic about it's ability to govern such a fractured citizenry and is trying to reassert itself.

You would think the state would be concerned about the fractures in society. Though the quote from the Labour MP suggests they think the sentencing was too harsh. The quote from that idiot Polanski was all too predictable.

Will be interesting to see what Kemi Badenoch & Keir Starmer have to say about it, if they choose to comment.

Didn't they attack a police woman with a sledgehammer, disabling her?

Violence against women is NEVER acceptable. The sentence seems light IMO.

I thought judges were heavily bound by the sentencing guidelines of the Sentencing Council? At least that’s what we’re told when convicted rapists and killers walk free.

One of them did - Samuel Corner.

Well, the cynic in me thinks that the initial fracturing has been mostly intentional, ironically in an attempt to make the country easier to govern.
There can be very little mass uprisings, of the sort that occured after the Tolpuddle Martyrs and the Peterloo massacres, when the populace has been balkanized.

I watched the news last night about what Israel are doing in Lebanon, bombing decent people's homes to rubble, destroying communities, in the guise of killing hesbollah members. Basically Lebanon is the next Gaza.
Then heard this news about protesters being jailed for attacking an arms factory.

When will this Israeli government ever be held to account?

They are, of course, but there is leeway in interpretation. The retrospective application of the terror link being one-way that a heavier sentence was justified here.

A million pounds worth of damage and attacking someone with a sledgehammer is not protesting it's criminality

This thread is about the UK not Israel and there are plenty of anti Israel threads on the Conflict in the Middle East board, as you know.

Yes. Corner hit her with a sledgehammer, fracturing her spine

She has been affected professionally, and has been traumatised by it, unsurprisingly

Sentences well deserved imo

Good. Fully deserved

Damage to bombs and equipment used to kill innocent children and a security guard protecting the facility. It’s not bombs used to protect the UK. They are bombs for another country to commit war crimes. Can you see how insane this is?

This!

Good. Polanski’s comment is concerning.

What’s insane is that a man hid behind this “cause” to justify disabling a woman and the far left have swallowed it.

Yes. I think people are much more likely to take direct action regarding their grievances now. See also Southampton and Belfast; direct action for them regarding grievances they feel have long been ignored, criminal action in the eyes of the state and the rest of the population that doesn't share those grievances.

If you think damaging our bomb making facilities will stop countries bombing one another you are wrong

And the sledgehammer attack on a woman?

Why not mention that he smashed the spine of a woman with a sledgehammer in the OP?

The article does include the fact that Corner was jailed for seven years and eight months for criminal damage and inflicting grievous bodily harm on a police sergeant. The judge, Mr Justice Johnson, said Corner had had no justification for the "extreme and gratuitous force" used.

To be honest, I thought that everyone with an interest in this case would already be aware that a sledgehammer was used to inflict grievous bodily harm on the police woman.

Maybe not - but that is something that was bound to be discussed in this thread as it is the most shocking element.

Anything to say about any of the other horrible conflicts raging across the world? Odd how all the protests are about Israel. Where are the protests about Russia's invasion of Ukraine, China's human rights abuses against Tibetans and Uyghurs, the protracted conflicts in Myanmar and South Sudan, the drugs wars in Mexico, the horrific suppression of women in Afghanistan and Iran? I don't condone what Israel has done, but it's very far from being the only regime in the world that's behaving badly. I also doubt many UK citizens would enjoy living under Hamas or Hezbollah.

To add @Fillies4DeclanRice the article I posted a link to does include that information but I didn't want to post the whole long article as I don't think the average person has an attention span that long (including myself).

To add to my OP further details from the article:

Corner, a former student at the University of Oxford, was also convicted of causing grievous bodily harm after he fractured Sgt Kate Evans' spine with a sledgehammer in the raid.

Sgt Evans held back tears as she read an impact statement to the court which revealed she was still receiving medical treatment and had been forced to give up her rank after struggling in the aftermath of the attack.

"The emotional impact of this incident has been profound and ongoing.

"I experience disturbed sleep, often waking in a panicked state or after distressing dreams," she said.

She also told the court that Corner had shown "no sign of shock or regret" after he hit her and that he had only attempted to "justify his actions with baseless and offensive claims that [she] was complicit in genocide".

In a statement released after sentencing, Avon and Somerset Police's Chief Constable, Sarah Crew, said: "What happened that night changed the life of one of our officers. For Sgt Evans, this has been deeply personal, painful and lasting.
"It is important everyone realises that behind every uniform is an ordinary person.

"Someone with a family, with responsibilities, and a life beyond the job."

Nothing can justify Corner's attack on Sergeant Evans. Nothing at all.

This is from the BBC report about the sentences:
Sgt Evans held back tears as she read an impact statement to the court which revealed she was still receiving medical treatment and had been forced to give up her rank after struggling in the aftermath of the attack.
"The emotional impact of this incident has been profound and ongoing.
"I experience disturbed sleep, often waking in a panicked state or after distressing dreams," she said.
She also told the court that Corner had shown "no sign of shock or regret" after he hit her and that he had only attempted to "justify his actions with baseless and offensive claims that [she] was complicit in genocide".

Sanctimonious wee git. His time at the University of Oxford appears to have been wasted.

Seems from the comments on this thread already that some empathise with Corner's position despite the devastating effect that it had on the policewoman with a fractured spine who will have to live with the physical and emotional scars for the rest of her life.