Gaza factory protester 'wanted to stop genocide'

A protester who attacked a factory over its alleged links to Israel and the Gaza conflict wanted to stop equipment being sent to a "genocide", a court has heard.

Two women scaled a roof at Pearson Engineering in Newcastle and staged an eight-hour stand off in February 2025, while a third tried to chain themselves to a truck, the city's crown court was told.

Hollie Mildenhall, 25, and Georgia Coote, 28, both from Newcastle, and Summer Oxlade, 29, from Houghton-le-Spring, each deny criminal damage.

Oxlade told jurors she was "shocked" to find out the Israeli state owned a factory "making weapons" in Newcastle and she believed the firm was "complicit" in war crimes.

The court has heard Pearson Engineering is owned by Rafael Advanced Defence Systems, an Israeli-state owned weapons company, although a company representative previously told jurors none of its creations had been supplied to Israel.

At about 05:20 GMT on 18 February 2025, Mildenhall and Coote climbed on to the roof of the factory's gatehouse while Oxlade dumped rubble from a flatbed truck in the entrance before trying to chain herself to the vehicle, the court has heard.

The women on the roof sprayed red paint from fire extinguishers, cut through razor wire and smashed two illuminated panels of the firm's large sign, the court heard.

Two men dressed all in black also sprayed red paint at the building before fleeing, jurors have been told.

Oxlade, who gave evidence while wearing a white, red and green scarf draped around her shoulders, told the court she believed from Pearson Engineering's own website that parts for tanks and drones to be used by the Israeli military were being made at the factory.

She said she had read reports of Israeli tanks running over refugees in a camp while a Rafael-made missile had been used in an attack which killed British aid workers.

Oxlade said she accepted full joint responsibility for all three women's actions, with the aim being to disrupt production at the factory for as long as possible.

When asked by her barrister Mira Hammad why she wanted to halt work at the site, Oxlade said: "To stop the movement of weapons to a genocide."

She said she had been aware of issues in Gaza and Palestine for several years but felt like she "had to do something" in 2023 after reading reports of Israel "slaughtering thousands and thousands of Palestinian civilians".

Oxlade said both her parents had died giving her an insight into grief, but she "couldn't comprehend the level of loss" felt by people in Palestine whose whole families had been "obliterated".

She said she saw evidence every day online that Israel was "committing war crimes and crimes against humanity".

At a pro-Palestine rally in Newcastle city centre in 2023, she was told there was "an Israeli weapons factory in Newcastle", the court heard.

"That was really shocking to me," Oxlade said, adding she thought that would be "illegal" in international law and made the firm "complicit in the genocide".

She said she joined the Shut Down Rafael campaign group and began protesting outside the factory every weekend, but felt "ignored", with no formal investigation launched into the "war crimes going on in that factory", while marches, letters and petitions had also failed to have any effect.

More direct action was needed to actually stop production, Oxlade said, adding: "My logic was if we can stop one tank being built then that's one less tank going to kill innocent Palestinians."

She said the group sought help from Palestine Action, which provided paint-filled fire extinguishers and a link to buy the flatbed truck online.

Oxlade said she did not know who the figures in black were but Palestine Action had said it would try and send people to block security guards from stopping the women carry out their plan.

She said they did not want to hurt anyone or spray anybody with paint.

The court heard Oxlade was born and raised in Sunderland and had got a masters degree in cultural property protection from Newcastle University.

She had been involved in various feminist, anti-racism and pro-refugee campaigns and charities and her latest job was as a caseworker for a homelessness charity supporting young LGBTQ people, the court heard.

She had a caution for criminal damage from 2020 when, as part of a Black Lives Matter protest in Newcastle, she spray-painted a statue of a man she believed to be "racist and involved in colonialism", the court heard.

In cross-examination, prosecutor Michael Bunch asked if Oxlade agreed she and her co-accused intentionally caused damage to the gatehouse and factory sign.

Oxlade, who was removed from the truck and arrested about 40 minutes after the protest began, said she did but it was "in aid of disrupting the factory".

She said she felt the actions they took were necessary to achieve their aim.

Bunch asked how spraying red paint and damaging the sign would cause the factory to close down.

She said she did not think people could go back to work until "everything is fixed" and if the security office was out of action, workers would not be allowed in.

Oxlade also said the red paint was "symbolic".

"It's supposed to symbolise the blood of the Palestinians who are being genocided right now," she said.

Bunch said the damage was "gratuitous" and had "no practical effect", but Oxlade disagreed and said the women stopped a day of production.

The trial continues.

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