Trial told activists used sledgehammers on police and security in Bristol factory attack
Prosecutors say Palestine Action activists carried out a "meticulously organised" attack
Last updated 18th Nov 2025
Palestine Action activists broke into an Israel-based defence firm's UK site in a prison van before using sledgehammers as weapons on security guards and police officers, prosecutors say.
Charlotte Head, Samuel Corner, Leona Kamio, Fatema Rajwani, Zoe Rogers and Jordan Devlin are accused of carrying out a "meticulously organised" attack at an Elbit Systems factory in Bristol in the early hours of August 6 last year.
Prosecutor Deanna Heer KC, opening the trial at Woolwich Crown Court on Tuesday, said the six, wearing red jumpsuits, attempted to "cause as much damage as possible and obtain information about the company".
She said they were each armed with a sledgehammer, which was intended to be used to damage property but that they were also carried as "weapons" to be used to threaten and damage people if necessary.
Jurors heard that the alleged aim was to close the site for "a significant period of time by targeting key systems and capital to the site operation".
Ms Heer said that security at the site was "tight", with the buildings protected by two perimeter fences, security gates, CCTV cameras and security guards.
The court heard that security guard Nigel Shaw said he was patrolling the car park at the rear of the factory at around 3.30am when he saw a white prison van "crashing through the fence".
Ms Heer said that the van was driven at the main building's loading bay door "effectively as a battering ram" until it gave way.
She told jurors that the van was driven by Head, while Corner was in the front and Kamio, Rajwani, Rogers and Devlin were in the back.
The court heard that inside a warehouse, the defendants "set about destroying as much property as they could", with photographs taken after showing that they "succeeded in causing extensive damage".
They used fire extinguishers filled with red paint to spray the walls and the floor and crowbars and hammers to damage computer equipment and boxes of technical products, which they smashed apart, Ms Heer said.
As security guards tried to stop them, they were sworn at and told to leave, had sledgehammers swung at them and were whipped, while one was sprayed with a foam fire extinguisher, the court heard.
Police officers later arrived and police sergeant Kate Evans was struck twice on the back by Corner, jurors were told.
Ps Evans was left with a large bruise on her back and an X-ray showed there was a fracture to her lumbar spine, leaving her unable to return to work for three months, the court heard.
All six defendants were arrested at the factory on the day.
Ms Heer said: "The evidence in this case, members of the jury, demonstrates that the attack upon the Elbit factory that night was planned and that's a key piece of information in this case because it means these defendants knew the purpose of the plan and their role within it.
"The purpose was to carry out as much damage as possible and the role of these defendants was to smash up as much property as possible and to keep smashing until they were forced to stop, and if that involved threatening the security guards or using force against them or injuring them with those sledgehammers, then so be it, that is what they intended to do if they had to.
"And what Samuel Corner succeeded in doing, causing really serious bodily injury to Kate Evans, intending to do so."
The prosecutor said Elbit Systems UK manufactures defence technology equipment and is a UK-registered company whose parent company is based in Israel.
Head, 29; Kamio, 30; Rajwani, 21; Rogers, 22; Devlin, 31; and Corner, 23, deny aggravated burglary, criminal damage and violent disorder.
Corner has denied causing Ps Evans grievous bodily harm with intent.
The trial continues.