Activist hit officer with a sledgehammer, trial told

A PALESTINE Action activist struck a police sergeant with a sledgehammer, causing her to scream out in pain, after swinging it at another officer at an Israel-based defence firm’s UK site, a trial has heard.

- SOPHIE ROBINSON [e-mail]

Six activists are accused of carrying out an attack at Elbit Systems in Bristol after breaking into the factory in a prison van in the early hours of August 6 last year, using sledgehammers as weapons and wearing red jumpsuits.

Charlotte Head, Samuel Corner, Leona Kamio, Fatema Rajwani, Zoe Rogers and Jordan Devlin are charged with aggravated burglary, criminal damage and violent disorder in relation to the alleged break-in.

Corner denies a further charge of causing Police Sergeant Kate Evans grievous bodily harm.

Ps Evans told Woolwich Crown Court yesterday she thought her spine was “shattered” when she was hit to her lower back while she was on her knees arresting a female activist.

Giving evidence, Ps Evans told the jury: “I can remember struggling with the handcuffs. The ratchet bit got caught on the clothing, on her red boiler suit.