The head of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has labelled the protests held outside of Woolwich Crown Court during the trial of six Palestine Action activists as “a threat to the administration of justice”.
Director of Public Prosecutions, Stephen Parkinson, made his comments just days after the group were found not guilty of aggravated burglary in connection with a break-in at the Elbit Systems factory in 2024.
Charlotte Head, 29, Samuel Corner, 23, Leona Kamio, 30, Fatema Rajwani, 21, Zoe Rogers, 22, and Jordan Devlin, 31, were all found not guilty of aggravated burglary by a jury at Woolwich Crown Court last week.
Jurors also found Rajwani, Rogers and Devlin not guilty of violent disorder, but failed to reach verdicts on several other counts.
No decision was reached over a charge of grievous bodily harm against Corner, nor on charges of violent disorder against Head, Kamio and Corner.
The break-in, which took place in August 2024, occurred before Palestine Action was proscribed as a terrorist group by the Home Office – a designation which is under judicial review
During the trial, demonstrators gathered outside the court and put up signs informing on the jurors that they were allowed acquit the defendants on grounds of conscience.
While the jury was in retirement, the court heard posters had been put up on bus stops and lampposts near the building which said: “The jury decide not the judge,” “Jury equity is when a jury acquits someone on moral grounds,” and: “Jurors can give a not guilty verdict even when they believe a defendant has broken the law.”
The prosecution said it was aware of the signs being put up in public places during the trial, which set out the principle of “jury equity” – the capacity of a jury to return a verdict according to conscience – and that police had been taking the posters down.
“The way that we have been dealing with it is asking the local police to remove them from bus stops, lampposts, but they keep reappearing,” Deanna Heer KC told the judge.
One juror sent an email to the court flagging they had seen the displays, saying it seemed someone was “trying to influence the jury and their decisions”.
Parkinson called these actions "highly regrettable" and said they "clearly intended to influence the jury".
"I'm not going to opine as to whether or not an offence is committed, but it's obviously a concern that if that is the motivation - which I'm sure it was - then that amounts to some form of contempt," he said
The CPS has confirmed it will seek a retrial, with the details – including which charges will be re-examined – set to be decided at a hearing on 18 February.
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