A judge has imposed lengthy custodial sentences on four Palestine Action activists who smashed up drones and other equipment at an Israeli arms manufacturer’s UK factory after ruling that there was a “terrorist connection” to their offending.
Charlotte Head, 30, and Leona Kamio, 30, were each jailed for five years and Fatema Rajwani, 21, was sentenced to four years and 8 months for criminal damage in relation to a 2024 break-in at the Elbit Systems UK site in Gloucestershire. Samuel Corner, 23, who was additionally convicted of grievous bodily harm without intent for striking Sgt Kate Evans with a sledgehammer, was sentenced to seven years and eight months. Each will also spend an additional year on licence and be subject to 15 years of terrorist notification requirements.
A report relied on by the prosecution at Friday’s sentencing hearing said the raid on the factory had caused £1.2m of damage, including to 41 military assets. The report referred to £395,056 of damage to six units in an unnamed drone system as well as damage to other unmanned aerial vehicles.
Mr Justice Johnson told the four they had participated in a “carefully planned and highly sophisticated attack”, adding: “The fact that you were trying to shut down a company that you thought was acting unlawfully does not reduce the seriousness of the offence.”
He said Corner had shown no remorse and had used “extreme and gratuitous force against a vulnerable police officer who was acting in the course of her duties”.
Announcing his finding of a “terrorist connection” under section 69 of the Sentencing Act, ahead of deciding on the sentences, Johnson said: “I am sure that each defendant’s offence of criminal damage involved serious damage to property, was designed to intimidate the UK government and a section of the public [Elbit employees and those of other businesses linked to Elbit] and was for the purpose of advancing a political or ideological cause.”
Representing Head, Rajiv Menon KC had told Johnson that it was unprecedented for the prosecution to apply for a judge to sentence a defendant as a terrorist for a non-violent offence. Menon said it was “an invitation to chilling, creeping authoritarianism that undermines the very fabric of our society”.
In written arguments, Mira Hammad KC, representing Kamio, said the defendants had initially been arrested on suspicion of involvement in acts of terrorism but not charged with those offences “showing that a deliberate decision was taken not to submit the crown’s case [that there was terrorism] to the arbitrament of a jury …[therefore] the court should not allow the crown to use [section 69] as a vehicle for enhancing sentence in circumstances where it has determined that a conviction for the same offence by the jury is unlikely”.
Tom Wainwright KC, representing Corner, said a terrorist connection finding against the defendants would also mean the suffragettes, the Greenham Common women and the Trident Ploughshares movement were terrorists. “It’s wrong for someone to be sentenced for a more serious offence of which they have not been convicted,” he added.
After the terrorist connection finding Menon wept while speaking of Head’s character. Wainwright said of the destruction of drones: “They may have been involved in taking the lives of men, women and children in Gaza. That is why they acted. That’s something that – in a sane world – would be commended.”
The terrorist connection finding means the four will have to serve at least two-thirds of their sentences for criminal damage in prison.
Reading her witness statement, Evans, occasionally crying, said: “The overall impact of this incident has been profound and long-lasting,” she told the court. “It has affected my physical health, mental wellbeing, confidence, career and family life. I am not the same person I was before this happened, I feel my personality has changed.”
During the trial, Corner said he panicked after being pepper sprayed and acted to protect a co-defendant he believed was being seriously hurt.
Approximately 500 protesters gathered outside Woolwich crown court in south-east London, including some holding placards that read “Saving lives is not terrorism. I support Palestine Action”. More than 100 people were arrested for allegedly supporting Palestine Action, which remains proscribed under the Terrorism Act pending the court of appeal’s judgment on Monday on the lawfulness of the ban.
