All six are charged with criminal damage but Sam Corner (23) has an additional charge of ‘grievous bodily harm with intent’. The jury in the first trial heard the evidence against him and refused to convict him.
Yet Sam was refused bail, and he alone of the Filton 24 remains in prison. He has now been incarcerated for over 20 months despite not having a single conviction.
Sam Corner’s evidence on the stand this week made it clear that when he hit Sgt Evans with a sledgehammer he was overwhelmed with panic, blinded with Pava spray, very worried about the younger women activists in the factory, had just witnessed a security guard hit Jordan in the face, heard a woman scream and thought mistakenly that Sgt Evans was another violent security guard injuring Zoe or Fatema Zainab. He acted quickly to try to protect her.
The CPS charge against him of ‘GBH with intent’ seems designed to prop up the state’s narrative that Palestine Action is a violent terrorist organisation. But those who hear the evidence and the context get a very different picture.
Sam is an Oxford graduate and before taking direct action, he was involved with the encampment at university. But he said it failed to make real progress on any demands. So after he graduated he joined Palestine Action.
When asked what the intention of the action was, Sam said:
“We intended to destroy weapons and things needed to make weapons which we believed were going to be used to cause death and destruction. We wanted to shut Elbit down, shut this facility down for as long as possible so they couldn’t make or export weapons from there.”
That night…
Sam is autistic and found the situation chaotic and overwhelming. He said he was anxious, scared and panicked throughout, worried for his own safety and the safety of the others, especially the younger women. Sam said they had not expected security guards to enter the building. Moments before he hit Sgt Evans with a sledgehammer, he had seen Elbit guard Angelo Volante strike Jordan Devlin in the face with a sledgehammer.
He was then sprayed directly in the face with Pava spray, a synthetic version of pepper spray. His vision was obscured and he was in pain. He had not realised the police had entered the building, instead he thought more violent security guards had arrived. When he heard a woman screaming he thought she was being seriously hurt by security, and acted quickly to help.
Asked by his barrister why he swung the sledgehammer at Sgt Evans, Sam said:
“To protect her. I heard someone screaming … and I thought she was being seriously hurt by security.“
Sam told the court he had never been arrested, been in a fight nor used violence before.
On Sgt Evans’ injury the jury were told:
The doctors looking at the first X-rays didn’t identify any bone damage, nor in an MRI later. The injury didn’t require surgery and Sergeant Evans was advised to take painkillers and do physiotherapy. The agreed facts state from medical evidence that you’d expect such a fracture to heal in six to twelve weeks, with full healing in three to six months, and no long-term consequences.
RELEVANT PRESS
https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/26047517.palestine-activist-hit-sergeant-sledgehammer-court-heard
Free all political prisoners from the UK to Palestine. Shut Elbit Down!