Pro-Palestine activists used sledgehammers in action at Israel-linked firm, UK court told

​Six pro-Palestinian activists armed with sledgehammers attacked an Israeli-linked defence firm, with one striking a female police officer twice with his weapon, a court has heard. Opening the trial at Woolwich crown court on Tuesday, the prosecutor, Deanna Heer KC, said the defendants were involved in a “meticulously organised” operation by Palestine Action at the Elbit Systems factory in Filton, near Bristol, on 6 August last year. Charlotte Head, 29, Samuel Corner, 23, Leona Kamio, 30, Fatema Zainab Rajwani, 21, Zoe Rogers, 22, and Jordan Devlin, 31, are accused of aggravated burglary, criminal damage and violent disorder. Corner is also charged with causing police officer Kate Evans grievous bodily harm. They deny the charges. Heer said a van driven by Head and carrying the other defendants, all wearing red jumpsuits, crashed through the fence surrounding the site, followed by people on foot wearing black jumpsuits shouting: “Free Palestine.” She said those in black jumpsuits threw fireworks at security guards, lit flares and cracked whips in an attempt to overwhelm them while the defendants’ job was “to cause as much damage as possible and obtain information about the company (Elbit)”. The prosecutor said the defendants were all armed with sledgehammers, which were intended to be used to damage property but that they were also carried as weapons “to be used if necessary to threaten and damage people”. She told the court: “The evidence demonstrates that all of these defendants used them for that purpose, to threaten or to attack the security guards and to lend support to one another as they did so.” “When the police arrived, as the defendants knew they would, Samuel Corner attacked them, going so far as to strike a female officer across the back with his sledgehammer while she was on the floor, facing away from him.” She said Corner hit PC Kate Evans twice while she was on all fours trying to apprehend Rogers. Evans, who “screamed in pain after the first of the blows”, suffered a fractured lumbar spine and could only return to work after three months, and on reduced duties, because she was still in pain, the court was told. Heer said the defendants used fire extinguishers filled with red paint to spray the walls and the floor and crowbars and hammers to damage computer equipment and boxes of technical products, which they smashed. The security guards who tried to stop the defendants were sworn at, told to leave, had sledgehammers swung at them and were whipped, while one was sprayed with a foam fire extinguisher, the prosecutor continued. The jury was shown footage of 6 August taken by police body-worn cameras as well as GoPro cameras worn by those involved in the action. Heer said that at one point Head and Zainab Rajwani grinned at the camera and said: “You’ve been ‘Pal Action’d’.” Before Heer opened the trial, Mr Justice Johnson told the members of the jury that, while they were entitled to their views on the war in Gaza, it was irrelevant to the case, as was the controversy over whether the home secretary’s decision to ban Palestine Action, which took effect in July, was lawful. “You will appreciate that it is vitally important that you judge the case on the evidence, not on the basis of what you or anyone else thinks about Palestine Action or the war in Gaza,” said Johnson. “You must not hold the proscription of Palestine Action against the defendants in any way.” The trial is expected to last 10 weeks.