Six Palestine Action activists cleared of aggravated burglary at Israel-linked defence firm

Six Palestine Action activists have been cleared of aggravated burglary over a break-in at an Israeli-linked defence firm's UK site.

Prosecutors said six members of the group - wearing red boiler suits and armed with sledgehammers - used a prison van as a "battering ram" to get inside the Elbit Systems UK factory in Bristol in a "meticulously organised" attack in the early hours of 6 August 2024.

They were accused of spraying red paint from fire extinguishers, using crowbars and hammers to break computer equipment and boxes of technical products, and smashing up the disabled toilet.

But after a trial at Woolwich Crown Court, Samuel Corner, 23, Charlotte Head, 29, Leona Kamio, 30, Fatema Rajwani, 21, Zoe Rogers, 22, and Jordan Devlin, 31, were found not guilty of aggravated burglary.

They had also denied charges of criminal damage and violent disorder.

The jury failed to reach verdicts on the criminal damage charge after deliberating for more than 36 hours.

Rajwani, Rogers and Devlin were found not guilty of violent disorder, while verdicts were not reached for the three others.

The jury also failed to reach a verdict on an additional charge of causing grievous bodily harm against Oxford graduate Corner.

He had been accused of allegedly striking Police Sergeant Kate Evans on the back with a sledgehammer while she was on the floor, leaving her with a fracture to her lumbar spine.

The six defendants hugged in ​the dock and waved to supporters in the public gallery, who cheered loudly after the judge had left court.

Shortly before returning the verdicts, the judge directed jurors to ignore posters put up on bus stops and lampposts near the court which set out the principle of "jury equity" - when a jury returns a verdict according to conscience - "which might appear to be intended to influence you".

Prosecutors said local police had been asked to remove them.

Jurors were told at the start of the trial that the allegations came before Palestine Action's proscription under terrorism laws last year, and the ban was not relevant to the case.

Prosecutors said they will consider whether to seek a retrial on the remaining charges.

The court heard that Elbit Systems UK manufactures defence technology equipment and is a UK-registered company whose parent company is based in Israel.

All of the defendants, apart from metal worker Devlin, gave evidence, admitting they had entered Elbit's factory without permission and damaged property, including drones and computers, the jury was told.

Prosecutor Deanna Heer KC said "rightly or wrongly", they all "genuinely believed the attack on Elbit" would help the Palestinian cause in Gaza.

But she said the group were "willing to go further" than just damaging property and to "injure people, if necessary… anyone who got in their way and tried to stop them achieving their goal, which was no less than to shut Elbit down".

In body-worn camera footage played in court, prosecutors said security guards were sworn at, had sledgehammers swung at them, were whipped, and one was sprayed with a foam fire extinguisher.

Corner was said to have struck Sgt Evans in the back with a sledgehammer as she was kneeling down trying to arrest another suspect.

The defendants all denied any intention to use violence, telling jurors the sledgehammers were not "in any circumstances intended to injure security staff".

Head's barrister Rajiv Menon KC compared the group to the suffragettes, who were accused of being "a threat to the social order" and "unladylike, feral, aggressive, violent", by MPs and in the mainstream press at the time.

Corner's lawyers said he "genuinely thought" that Kamio or Rogers was being seriously injured.

(c) Sky News 2026: Six Palestine Action activists cleared of aggravated burglary at Israel-linked defence firm