Author: FTF

Leona Kamio (30), who prefers to be known as ‘Ellie’, was next on the stand following Sam Corner on 9 and 10 December.  

The gruelling day of a prisoner attending trial

Her barrister, Ms Hammad, began by asking her about her day. 

Ellie said that as usual, she was woken up in her cell at HMP Bronzefield at 5am. Because of her dietary requirements, the prison had said they would send a packed lunch with her in the Serco prison van. She knew this might not happen “because the system is such a ‘shitshow’”, so she saved some of yesterday’s food to bring in case. 

It turned out she was right – there was no food for any of the four defendants from Bronzefield – so she’d shared what she had with the others. She also hasn’t slept well for four nights because there’s a lot of shouting on her prison wing.

Why she took action

Ellie was working as a Forest School teacher up before the action, spending time outdoors with 2-4 year olds. The court later heard a glowing character witness statement from the head teacher.  Before that she had spent three years performing with a band which got signed to Island Records.

In 2024, she attended a Palestine solidarity night, and that led to watching posts on social media from a Palestine journalist. 

Real Media reports: “She started crying as she described some of the footage she saw. One was of a body bag of a decapitated body, and then she saw a child picking up parts of his mother’s body and putting them in a plastic bag to bury her.”

““She started crying as she described some of the footage she saw… a child picking up parts of his mother’s body and putting them in a plastic bag to bury her.”

This was when she thought more about Palestine Action, and ended up attending a training day in London in May. Here she heard from a Palestinian journalist about the history of Israel’s illegal occupation.

She described how people introduced themselves at the meeting, and a common theme emerged that people felt they had done everything they could [about the genocide], and that they felt they needed to do more. She had gone on marches and had written to her MPs and felt this had not achieved anything. She expressed an interest in a ‘high level action’.

Ellie said that ultimately, she went into the factory with a sledgehammer in order to help prevent a genocide, because the weapons being made were being sent to Israel to kill people. She had heard that Elbit’s Filton site was the newest and largest of their factories – Elbit’s “crown jewel”, opened by the Israeli ambassador herself. She confirmed that no part of the action was intended to hurt anyone.

“She went into the factory with a sledgehammer in order to help prevent a genocide, because the weapons being made were being sent to Israel to kill people”

Violence in the factory

She didn’t believe anyone at Palestine Action was intending to use violence, and she said that if she or Charlotte or Fatema had heard this they’d all have said ‘no way’, because they had DBS certificates for work.

“Ellie said she’d been following Palestine Action for years and there had never been any incident where violence was used against security. She said that is not what any of them had signed up to, it’s not what Palestine Action was about.”

As her evidence continued however, she described the violence of the Elbit security guards. Within minutes of them entering the warehouse, three of them came in, and Ellie said the scene was ‘overwhelming’. 

First she said Patrick Luke had Lottie screaming on the floor, and Nigel Shaw looked like he wanted to jab her with his umbrella. But she described Angelo Volante as a “psycho,  like he’d trained for this and was going to take them on”. She said he was in the alcove (where the security camera footage has not been produced) swinging a sledgehammer wildly, then seemed to suddenly have an angle-grinder and a hammer. 

“She described Angelo Volante as a ‘psycho,  like he’d trained for this and was going to take them on’”

Jordan was trying to calm Volante down, but Ellie said he was acting dangerously, lunging with the angle-grinder at people. She was worried he could literally cut somebody’s limb off.

Ellie’s fears about Elbit

Real Media reports:

“She felt it likely Elbit had told their security to teach Palestine Action a lesson because they were losing a lot of money due to all the actions against them. She knew they hire ex-military people, so really thought they were all going to get beaten up.

Asked why she thought Elbit would do that,  Ellie said she’d watched a video of Elbit’s CEO giving a tour and boasting about how good the war had been for business. In the same promo video they interviewed employees who wore lab coats, and they said they saw themselves as civil soldiers for the Israeli Defence Force (IDF), and ‘proud to be the backbone of the IDF’. 

“Ellie said she’d watched a video of Elbit’s CEO giving a tour and boasting about how good the war had been for business”

She also knew what the IDF do to Palestinians – a neighbour of her mother had been imprisoned in a Israeli prison and had directly witnessed Israeli guards raping Palestinians, and sexually assaulting them with a metal pole. She said they have no regard for human life whatsoever. So if these are the type of people that Elbit hires, they wouldn’t care about protesters for Palestine and wouldn’t care about harming her.”

Tasered twice

In police body worn video footage shown to the court, Ellie is shown being tasered, and screaming in pain. During cross-examination the officer who tasered her admitted that he had only shouted ‘Taser, taser! after discharging the taser, giving her no time to react. Then, because an attempt to taser Sam Corner didn’t work – the barbs did not connect properly – when he fires the taser again, Ellie receives a second, painful shock.

She continues shouting and struggling in the footage. 

“When he fires the taser again, Ellie receives a second, painful shock”

Real Media reports: “she was in a lot of pain as she’d just been tasered, had smashed her chin as she fell to the ground, and the policeman was turning her around, which was pushing the taser barbs into her. He was pulling her arm round behind her and she was begging him to put the cuffs on the front. Ellie said he was kneeling on her and bending her wrist, all of which was painful.

Ms Hammad shows a series of injuries in Ellie’s medical report after arrests, which include quite a long list of bruises, scratches, taser wounds, and even a possible fracture on a finger. It describes sledgehammer damage to her hand, but she couldn’t remember when that happened.”

Welcome to return to her job

Finally the court heard a character witness statement from her former head teacher at the Forest School where she worked. It included:

“Since Léona has been away from the nursery, her absence has had a big impact on the children and the team. She is adored by everyone. The children, who are very young, have been upset and confused by her absence and ask about her often. Her job remains open for her, and the parents and children would love to have her back at the nursery as soon as possible.”

That was the end of Ellie Kamio’s case. The next defendants are Fatema Zainab Rajwani, Zoe Rogers and Jordan Devlin.

To get updates in your inbox, sign up to our newsletter

The Filton Palestine Action trial – reports from week 4

After Charlotte Head finished giving evidence, Sam Corner (23) was the next defendant on the stand, on 8 and 9 December.

As well as the joint charges faced by all six, Sam is charged with grievous bodily harm with intent. 

His alleged assault on a police officer has been repeatedly referred to by government ministers in the press to claim that Palestine Action was a violent organisation. This was despite the evidence not yet being heard by a jury – which lawyers say was highly prejudicial to the trial. So Sam’s evidence was a key moment.

About Sam

Before Sam spoke, the judge read out a statement about his diagnoses of autism spectrum condition and ADHD. As his barrister Mr Wainwright began questioning him, the court heard that Sam feels awkward in social situations and especially worries that he might unintentionally hurt people’s feelings. He was a gifted student, with A*s at A-level, and represented the UK at the International Linguistics Olympiad in South Korea. He graduated from Oxford University with a degree in philosophy and linguistics in the summer before the Filton action.

“He had never even been in a fight”

He said he had no previous arrests or convictions and had never even been in a fight. 

His awareness of events in Gaza grew as he got involved in a student encampment at his university, which held regular vigils for the people killed in Gaza. He began spending as much time there as possible, giving tours to visitors and helping where he could. 

Real Media: “It [the genocide] was affecting him a lot, making him depressed, with so little that people could apparently do about it. That’s what made him think about getting involved with Palestine Action – to actually do something about it. Mr Wainwright asked whether Sam was willing to cause physical harm to another person as something he could do. Sam responded ‘no’.”

Inside the Elbit factory

Through the questioning of the defence and then the prosecution, what Sam conveyed to the court was that the action had not gone as planned. The six inside the factory – the red team or ‘overts’ – had not expected the security guards to come inside. They thought  the black team or ‘coverts’ outside would be successful in their role of distracting the guards, and that entering the building would seem like too much hassle, so the guards would simply call the police and wait. 

As the Elbit guards began to enter, two of whom were aggressive, Sam became more panicked and overwhelmed. 

Asked if he intended to hurt anyone, Real Media reports: “He replied that they were all trying to stop people from being hurt – by bombs and grenades dropped from the drones like the ones in the factory. They weren’t there to hurt people”. 

“He replied that they were all trying to stop people from being hurt – by bombs and grenades dropped from the drones like the ones in the factory. They weren’t there to hurt people”

Whenever he was asked if violence was part of the plan, or when he was asked anything about the plan, he kept repeating that the aim was to destroy weapons that would be used for genocide.

The alleged assault

Questioned about hitting Sgt Evans with the sledgehammer, Sam explained that he was overwhelmed with panic. He had just witnessed Jordan Devlin being hit in the face by a security guard with the handle of a sledgehammer and was then sprayed in his eyes with Pava spray, which the court heard earlier causes intense pain and affects vision. 

“He remembers his whole face was burning like ‘a widespread nettle sting’, and he couldn’t see anything.” 

He was unaware that the police had entered the factory – he thought that more security guards had arrived, as the police did not announce themselves and wore similar uniforms to security. 

“He remembers his whole face was burning like ‘a widespread nettle sting’, and he couldn’t see anything” 

He then heard one of the women scream (it was Ellie Kamio, who had just been tasered), and ran in her direction, thinking that she was being seriously hurt by a security guard, and wanting to do something to help. He came across Sgt Evans, who was on the floor handcuffing Zoe Rogers, and not being able to see properly thought Zoe was being attacked by a security guard. He said he was not thinking straight when he swung his sledgehammer at her back.  

“Sam said that hitting anyone with a sledgehammer was never part of any plan, and that all he knew at that moment was that they were obviously hurting his friend and he was panicking and trying to stop it somehow.”

“Hitting anyone with a sledgehammer was never part of any plan, and that all he knew at that moment was that they were obviously hurting his friend and he was panicking and trying to stop it somehow”

When Evans later asked him why Sam had hit her, as she checked his handcuffs, Sam said he was protecting Zoe.

‘Devasted’

Real Media reports on how Sam described his feelings after he had been arrested: “Sam said he felt devastated – being arrested for ‘terrorism’ or GBH was not something anyone envisaged…He was trying to come to terms with the fact that he had injured a police officer  – he was told about it by the solicitor that saw him – he was surprised he had been accused of GBH.”

After Sam had finished on the stand, the court heard some character witness statements. His grandfather’s included these words:

“[Sam] cares deeply for people in the world and has deep compassion. He is gentle with people and animals, putting a fly out of the room rather than swat it. He cares deeply about injustices in the world. He has never been observed with any aggressive traits and finds violence abhorrent.”

That was the end of Sam Corner’s case. The next defendants are Leona (Ellie) Kamio, Fatema Zainab Rajwani, Zoe Rogers and Jordan Devlin.

To get updates in your inbox, sign up to our newsletter

The Filton Palestine Action trial – reports from week 4

Last week the prosecution case ended and the defence began, with Charlotte (Lottie) Head being the first defendant to give evidence. For two gruelling days, 4 and 5 December, she answered questions from her barrister Rajiv Menon KC and then the prosecution, Deanna Heer KC.

The court heard that Lottie (29) spent three years volunteering in the Calais refugee camp known as the Jungle, where she witnessed abuses by the police, and was left with PTSD after incidents like giving first aid to a man who was stabbed and searching for missing children when a fire broke out in the camp. After she had moved back to the UK the news in Gaza triggered those memories and she was determined to try to do something to help.

Real Media reports: “She’d seen a video after a bombing of a father holding a decapitated small child, and thought “children can’t be terrorists”. To claim you’re precision-targeting but then kill 10,000 children was not something she could stand by and watch.”

“To claim that you’re precision-targeting but then kill 10,000 children was not something she could stand by and watch”

In June 2024 Lottie attended a Palestine Action training day on taking direct action against Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems, and after that organisers placed her in a group which became the ‘red team’ of six who took the Filton action together. 

Lottie was the driver of the repurposed prison van that the team used to drive into the shutters of the loading bay and enter the warehouse.

Inside the warehouse, Lottie located some quadcopter drones. Real Media: “She said she knew Elbit were proud of having produced 85% of IDF combat drones. There were a lot more in boxes, and so she started smashing the boxes.” 

Lottie was very clear that violence against people was never part of the plan – and that they were not prepared for the Elbit guards to intervene in the way they did. 

Real Media: “She said they had already agreed there would be no violence – no physical harm to a person. ‘Although we’d been told security wouldn’t come in, we thought there was a chance they’d look in, and I guess we hoped they’d think ‘this is more than my pay grade’ and they’d just phone the police.’”

She said they were so confident they’d be left for hours in the factory without interference that they had packed sandwiches!

Asked about the alleged assault on a police officer, ”Ms Head said it shouldn’t have happened, she didn’t want it to happen, and it wasn’t planned to happen. As much as she didn’t agree with what the company does, no-one should have got hurt.”

“It shouldn’t have happened… no one should have got hurt”

In cross-examination, the prosecution repeatedly put to Lottie that the activists had planned to use violence against security guards and police if necessary, and their tools were also intended to be weapons. Lottie consistently replied that no, the team had agreed ‘red lines’ they would not cross, and were adamant that no one should be violent. 

Two moving character statements were read out by people who had worked with Lottie. One testified that nearly every day in the Jungle, Lottie had driven camp residents to health appointments. She had also rented a flat and housed six refugees herself, sharing meals and life together with them.

You can read Real Media’s detailed account here: Week 3 (Days 10 and 11)

That was the end of Lottie Head’s case. The next defendants, in order, are Sam Corner, Leona (Ellie) Kamio, Fatema Zainab Rajwani, Zoe Rogers and Jordan Devlin.

To get updates in your inbox, sign up to our newsletter