Audrey Cherryl Mogan & Hamish McCallum of the Garden Court Protest Law Team successfully acted for the two defendants, instructed by Sophia Dutton at Kelly’s Solicitors.
Two defendants were charged with criminal damage and burglary following a direct-action lock-on protest by members of Palestine Action at Elbit Systems factory in Bristol in 2022.
The two defendants, represented by Audrey Cherryl Mogan and Hamish McCallum, were prosecuted on a joint enterprise basis.
The Crown alleged the defendants had encouraged and assisted the burglary and by blocking the entrance to the factory car park, by use of a lock-on device draped in a Palestine flag, thus delaying the police responding to other protestors inside the building.
The case included extensive legal argument about the right to protest, Articles 10 (freedom of expression) and 11 (freedom of assembly and association) of the European Convention on Human Rights and the interaction with the common law doctrine of joint enterprise.
Counsel made a successful submission of no case to answer halfway through the trial, which led to the Judge directing not guilty verdicts on the burglary count.
The jury then returned unanimous acquittals on the criminal damage count at the conclusion of the seven-day trial.
