Protesters good citizens but unlawful, jury told
CPSThree pro-Palestine protesters who attacked a factory over its alleged links to Israel were "good citizens" but acted unlawfully, prosecutors have told jurors.
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 herself 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.
In their closing speeches, the women's lawyers said they acted to stop a genocide and 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.
CPSIn his closing speech to jurors, prosecutor Michael Bunch said it was unusual for a court in Newcastle to be taking account of events happening 2,000 miles away.
He said trials normally involved "bad people doing bad things", but that was not the case with the three women who were "decent" and "good citizens".
The prosecutor said the trio were polite and thoughtful, aware of the world around them and motivated by their thoughts of other people.
But they each collectively accepted intentionally causing damage which was illegal, he said.
Bunch said the women "doubtlessly acted with their conscience" and were "motivated by compassion and a desperate desire to do something", but they "acted unlawfully".
CPSOn behalf of Oxlade, Mira Hammad said the daughter of truck drivers from Sunderland had wanted to "try and stop a genocide", adding she "saw the pain of somebody thousands of miles away who had nothing in common with her and felt moved to do something to put a stop to it".
She said Pearson Engineering "sits in Newcastle" but "belongs to a government headed by a man who to this day has a warrant out for his arrest for war crimes and crimes against humanity".
Hammad said the value of damage caused came to "about £6,000", with Oxlade's actual role involving dumping rubble from a truck and then sitting in the cab.
She said Oxlade "had no plan B" and was always going to end up arrested and on trial, but jurors had a decision to make.
Hammad said it would be "too late" if in years to come, a juror wished they had found the "Palestine activists" not guilty, and their decision would "stand as the part they play".
CPSRosalind Burgin, for Coote, said the jurors were "powerful" and could "not be punished" for their decision, adding they should "protect against prejudice".
Coote had been "matter of fact" and "honest" with jurors about her actions and intentions, the court heard.
She was motivated by seeing Israel's "onslaught" and "carpet-bombing" of Gaza, witnessing "horrors upon horrors" on the news, Burgin said.
Coote was "drawing the dots" between the "horrors happening there" and the companies in the "supply chain" in the UK, adding she was "acting in the belief" a factory "near her home" was making weapons for use by the Israeli forces.
She took action, such as petitioning politicians and attending protests, to no avail so decided to "escalate" and "put a crowbar" in the "conveyor belt pumping out weaponry" to force it to a stop, Burgin said.
CPSRepresenting Mildenhall, Ife Thompson said her client "got on the roof to stop the ongoing genocide" and killing of Palestinian people "by the weapons made in that factory".
Mildenhall tried the "democratic process" but "those avenues did not work", Thompson said, adding: "She was still seeing daily war crimes and killing in Gaza."
"Doing nothing was not an option," Thompson said.
Judge Edward Bindloss told jurors to put aside any views they might have on the situation in Gaza, adding it was not for them to determine the "lawfulness" of Israel's actions.
"This is not a forum for political debate," the judge said.
He also said the juror's views of the "morality" of Pearson Engineering and the defendants were "irrelevant".
The judge said all three women jointly admitted damaging property and their reasons were to stop "weapons" being exported from the factory to Israel to "kill people in Gaza" and to stop profits from Pearson Engineering going to the country.
But Bindloss said none of their reasons were "capable as a matter of law" to amount to a "lawful excuse" for causing criminal damage.
The trial continues.
