Sergeant feared spine ‘shattered’ after being hit with sledgehammer, jurors told
A court's heard evidence from an officer on duty during a protest at Elbit Systems' site near Bristol
A female police sergeant thought her spine may have “shattered” and feared being “paralysed” after a Palestine Action activist struck her back with a sledgehammer near Bristol, a trial heard.
Charlotte Head, Samuel Corner, Leona Kamio, Fatema Rajwani, Zoe Rogers and Jordan Devlin broke into the UK site of Israel-based defence firm Elbit Systems near Bristol on August 6 2024, before destroying property and clashing with security guards and police, it is alleged.
Prosecutors say that police sergeant Kate Evans was hit by Corner in the back with a sledgehammer as she was on her knees trying to arrest Rogers.
Ms Evans told Woolwich Crown Court on Friday: “It was a thud and it just dispersed, I felt it in my back, it dispersed across my whole body, down my legs, everywhere.”
She told of being “shocked”, “in disbelief” and “scared”.
Ms Evans added: “I thought my spine could have been shattered from the impact, I didn’t know if I could move, whether I was paralysed at the time.”
Her colleague Pc Peter Adams told the court that Corner hit Ms Evans with a “considerable amount of force”.
Mr Adams said: “I heard her scream in pain from the impact.”
He added: “He (Corner) was clearly a threat at that time.”
Pc Aaron Buxton said he saw Corner raise the sledgehammer over his shoulder and strike Ms Evans, who made an “immediate noise of pain”.
Mr Buxton told jurors that prior to that, Corner had swung the sledgehammer towards him “multiple times” as he was on the floor struggling with Devlin.
The officer told of feeling “significant pain” down his right calf.
Mr Buxton said: “I was terrified in that situation, it’s not somewhere I expected to find myself and I didn’t know what the outcome was going to be from that.”
The court heard that Ms Evans suffered a fractured spine, which she said caused her difficulty sleeping and exercising.
She was unable to return to work for three months and remains on restricted duties, jurors were told.
Ms Evans said she still experiences back pain more than 20 months on.
The court previously heard that in the early hours of August 6 2024, the six defendants, dressed in red jumpsuits, crashed into shutters outside the factory in a prison van, which was driven by Head and used “as a battering ram”.
Once inside, they used sledgehammers and crowbars to destroy computers and drones, and other equipment, and sprayed the walls and floor with red paint using fire extinguishers, the court heard.
Prosecutors say the raid was “carefully planned”, with documents found on an encrypted site revealing its purpose was to “shut Elbit down, this is our primary objective as Palestine Action.
“We can do that by sticking together and ensuring its destruction with our brain and muscle”.
Head, 30, Corner, 23, Kamio, 30, Rajwani, 21, Rogers, 22, and Devlin, 31, all deny criminal damage.
Corner faces a further charge of causing grievous bodily harm with intent to Ms Evans, which he denies.
The trial continues.