A pro-Palestinian protester accused of causing criminal damage to an aerospace factory has told jurors he wanted to shut the facility down for several days to try to save lives.
Jurors at Birmingham Crown Court have heard four activists targeted Moog Wolverhampton Limited because they believed the business was involved in the supply chain to Israel.
Prosecutors allege that Iain Evans, 33, Hisham Alkhamesi, 23, Bea Sherman, aged 23 and also known as Frank Sherman, and 24-year-old Hana Yun-Stevens acted unlawfully in smashing solar panels and windows after scaling the roof of the factory on August 26 last year.
Giving evidence on Tuesday, Evans told jurors: “We believed the longer we stayed up there, the more lives we would save.”
The University of Keele physics and maths graduate, of Shipley, West Yorkshire, said he first became aware of the issues in the Middle East while at university in around 2011.
Evans told the trial he had previously met MPs and asked them to do more in Parliament, and had been involved in more than 100 protest marches.
He also confirmed he had conducted “reconnaissance” of the factory on foot on August 5 and that he was the driver of a Land Rover which smashed through the gates in the early hours of August 26.
Asked by defence barrister Tom Wainwright why the group had taken food and tents to the site, Evans answered: “I was hoping to stay up on the roof for as long as possible – ideally several days if we could.
“The idea was that the longer we stay on the roof, the longer the factory would be shut down.
“That was the intended goal – to stop the factory from running essentially.”
Evans also claimed that the group had chosen a bank holiday as there would be no night shift and “we didn’t want to potentially cause harm to anyone”.
During cross-examination by prosecutor Rupert Jones, Evans said the action had been planned for around five months, and that he had a “very good income before all this” and had bought the Land Rover for £2,200.
A fifth person was planning to join the action but decided not to, Evans said, telling jurors he had previously worked for a different aerospace components firm.
“I think the idea to go to Moog was initially my idea,” he said.
“I believed it was important for the action to take place.
“We acquired tents, food and water because we were planning to stay up there for several days.
“We wanted to stop the factory from operating. The damage wasn’t the intention.
“We believed that causing damage was necessary to shut down the factory for as long as possible.”
The court has heard that hundreds of solar panels were smashed and the roof was cut open at the site in the Pendeford area, exposing machinery to the risk of rain damage.
A working at height team eventually removed the defendants one by one from the roof, the trial was told, and a “Free Palestine” banner and tools including lump hammers, saws and grinders were recovered.
Evans; Alkhamesi, of Burbage, Leicestershire; Sherman, of Ditchling, East Sussex; and Yun-Stevens, from south-west London, all pleaded not guilty at a previous hearing to a single count of causing criminal damage to property.
The Crown alleges the “straightforward” case is not about the “merits of the beliefs” of the defendants and that they had no lawful excuse to act as they did.
The trial continues.
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