A security guard said he was “sprayed with a fluid I was told was acid” during a break-in by Palestine Action intruders at a factory associated with an Israel-linked defence company, a trial has heard.
The guard said activists smashed the windows of a Land Rover and that he was “struck in the face” during the early morning raid on Instro Precision in Sandwich, Kent, on June 17 2024.
Nine men and women are on trial at the Old Bailey accused of criminal damage, burglary with intent and violent disorder.
The defendants were said to be members or supporters of Palestine Action which had deliberately targeted Instro Precision for its association with Elbit Systems, an Israeli-linked defence company.
Security guard Billy Dennis told jurors on Monday that he “saw people cutting through the fence” at around 3.20am on June 17 2024.
He added that he saw 15 to 20 people in two teams, one in black and one in red, “carrying hammers, hatchets, fireworks, spray bottles, fire extinguishers”, adding they were “wearing masks and goggles, hats, anything to obscure their identity”.
Dennis told the court: “As they haven’t yet breached the fence, my authority to ask them to leave was questionable, so I exited my vehicle and shouted in their direction: ‘You have no implied right of access, you need to leave.’
“They continued to cut through the fence.
“In an attempt to prevent any further damage, I drove the white Land Rover towards the fence in an attempt to block the hole they had created to prevent them from entering the site.
“Once the vehicle had stopped I was surrounded, and some of the vehicle’s windows were smashed through, mostly with blunt objects.”
Bodycam footage from Dennis appeared to show black masked figures smashing the windscreen of the Land Rover.
Dennis said he felt blood on his face, telling the court “the glass as it shattered, it cut my face”.
The guard said he was subjected to “verbal threats and abuse”, adding: “I was sprayed with a fluid that I was told was acid.”
Asked by Henry Blaxland KC, representing defendant Hannah Davidson, whether his recollections were correct after the footage was examined, the guard said: “It’s my account that I was sprayed, whether the evidence is there or not, I don’t know.
“I don’t know whether I was sprayed or not.”
Mr Dennis told jurors that the break-in was “incredibly noisy and disorientating”, adding: “There was one male, he told me to give him my bodycam and my radio also.
“I remember what I replied, it was: ‘Let me have some protection at least.’
“I definitely remember being struck in the face, whether that was with an object or not, I don’t know.”
Dennis’s phone call to police was played, in which he could be heard saying “I’ve got one of their hammers” and, discussing his movements, the guard told jurors he was “probably trying to run for my life”.
During his phone call to police, Dennis said “someone’s held a knife to my throat”.
Blaxland told jurors this was “another lie” by the guard and did not feature in his subsequent accounts of the incident.
In response, Dennis told the court: “It wasn’t a lie, it was what I thought happened.
“During fight or flight things get muddled up. During that kind of traumatic experience, your brain can think there’s things there when they aren’t there.”
The bodycam footage then appeared to show people wearing red boiler suits smashing up property inside the factory with sledgehammers as Dennis and fellow security guard Michael Robins confronted them.
Dennis told the court: “In an attempt to get them to stop damaging property, I tried to reason with them, to understand what they wanted.
“This was met with violence. Verbal abuse, physical abuse, being sprayed with a fire extinguisher.”
Describing the appearance of Robins, Dennis said he “looked like he’d been beaten up, he was covered in red paint and looked like he’d seen a ghost”, adding that his fellow guard had thrown up after the incident.
The guard said he and Robins then “backed off” and told the court: “I genuinely thought they were going to cause us some serious harm if we didn’t.”
Video footage showed the guard, now accompanied by other security personnel, pursuing people in red boiler suits as they left the factory while shouting “you’re terrorists” at them.
Dennis said he detained two people and the guard could be heard on video footage telling intruders: “Who f****** wants it now?”
Asked why he had made that comment, Dennis said: “I was irate, I was upset my colleagues had been hurt and the fact they thought this was acceptable behaviour.”
Discussing the break-in, Dennis told jurors: “I didn’t have a clue how to deal with this incident.
“You do not get this type of training unless you’re in the army.”
Prosecutors allege the black team were there to “overwhelm” security guards, enabling the red team to enter the building and “smash up as much property as they could and to keep smashing until they were stopped”.
The nine men and women on trial allegedly included members of the red team, one of the black team and others who helped at the perimeter and with travel and other arrangements.
The defendants are: Julija Brigadirova, 34, from Manchester; Nasser Akhtar, 39, of Crystal Palace; Elliot Wilson, 26 from Liverpool; Maximillian Dixon, 31, of Brockley, south-east London; Nirad Abrol, 27, of Birmingham; Seirol Davies, 31, from Plymouth; Xavi Davies, 23, of Binfield, Berkshire; Eoin O’Meara, 36, of Bristol; and Hannah Davidson, 53, of Edinburgh.
They deny the charges against them as the trial continues.
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