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Prosecutors have dropped aggravated burglary charges against 18 defendants accused of a Palestine Action break-in at an Israeli defence firm’s UK site after a jury cleared six other defendants of the offence.
Charlotte Head, 29, Samuel Corner, 23, Leona Kamio, 30, Fatema Rajwani, 21, Zoe Rogers, 22, and Jordan Devlin, 31, were all acquitted of aggravated burglary, which carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, with respect to the 6 August 2024 raid on the Elbit Systems factory in Filton, near Bristol.
At a case management hearing at Woolwich crown court, south London. for all 24 defendants charged in relation to the break-in, Deanna Heer KC said: “The prosecution has reconsidered the sufficiency of the evidence … In light of those verdicts and in respect of all the remaining defendants the prosecution offers no evidence on count one, aggravated burglary.”
However, she confirmed that the Crown Prosecution Service would be seeking a retrial of the six acquitted of aggravated burglary on the charges that the jury failed to reach verdicts on after more than 36 hours of deliberations.
Heer told Mr Justice Johnson on Wednesday: “As we indicated at the end of the trial, we now confirm the prosecution intention to seek a retrial in respect of all those allegations which no verdict was returned by the jury.
“That is criminal damage against all defendants, the three defendants on the allegation of violent disorder, and with Mr Corner on the allegation of causing grievous bodily harm with intent.”
Jurors cleared Rajwani, Rogers and Devlin of violent disorder but failed to reach a verdict on the charge with respect to Head, Corner, and Kamio.
None of the six were convicted of any offence and, at the conclusion of the trial, all of them apart from Corner were set free on conditional bail, after having spent about 18 months in custody.
The 18 further defendants charged with respect to the Elbit raid continue to face criminal damage charges, and some are also charged with violent disorder. They are all being held in prison awaiting trial, except for Sean Middlebrough, who absconded while on conditional release from Wandsworth prison, south-west London, in October last year.
The court heard that 13 of the 18 defendants had made applications for bail, some of which were due to be heard on Wednesday. The remaining bail applications are due to be heard on Friday.
Aggravated burglary requires an offender to commit a burglary while with a weapon which they intend to use to cause injury or incapacitate a person. The first six defendants to be tried were carrying sledgehammers but their lawyers told the jury that they were intended to be used to destroy property at the Elbit site.
Wednesday’s court hearing took place amid tight security, with at least two dozen police officers positioned around the court building and a heavy presence of court security guards.
Members of the public seeking to watch the court proceedings were initially held outside the court gates by security.
