Violence 'never part' of break-in plan, court told

One of six alleged Palestine Action members accused of using sledgehammers as weapons during a burglary has told a jury violence was "never part" of their plan.

Charlotte Head, 29, is accused of being involved in a violent break-in at an Elbit Systems factory in Bristol - a UK subsidiary of an Israeli defence firm - in the early hours of 6 August 2024.

She is jointly accused of aggravated burglary, criminal damage and violent disorder with Samuel Corner, 23, Leona Kamio, 30, Fatema Rajwani, 21, Zoe Rogers, 22, and Jordan Devlin, 31. They all deny any wrongdoing.

Giving evidence at Woolwich Crown Court earlier, Ms Head said the group agreed they did not want to use violence.

"We didn't want any harm to happen," she said. "Those red lines were in place."

The prosecution previously told the court the group tried to cause as much damage as possible when they broke into the factory dressed in red jumpsuits.

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 was told.

Prosecuting, Deanna Heer KC, previously said that police were called and when Sgt Kate Evans arrived she was struck twice on the back by Mr Corner. She suffered a fractured spine.

Mr Corner denies causing Sgt Evans grievous bodily harm with intent.

When asked about Sgt Evans' injuries, Ms Head said that as much as she disagrees with Elbit, which manufactures defence technology equipment, "nobody should get hurt like that".

When asked by her defence barrister Rajiv Menon KC if she would have taken part in the action had she known that violence would be used, she replied: "No, it wasn't ever part of the plan, it was never something that was supposed to happen."

'We packed sandwiches'

She told the jury the idea was for the group to appear to be too much "hassle" for security guards, so that they would not intervene, rather than "terrify" them.

"We expected to have hours in that building, we packed sandwiches, we didn't think that they would come in," she added.

Ms Head said she drove the prison van on the night of the break-in, which the court heard was crashed through the factory's fence before being used as a battering ram on the main building's loading bay door.

Ms Head said she was "quite reticent" about this, having never crashed a car. She said she visited the site prior to the incident to look at the size of the fence.

When asked if she damaged property once inside the building, Ms Head replied: "Yeah."

She denied whipping two security guards, but told the jury that she picked up a whip during the chaos to wave it as a "deterrent".

The court heard Ms Head, who worked for a domestic abuse charity, began attending pro-Palestine demonstrations in London. She slept at an encampment outside the town hall in Hackney, where she had been living, but felt concerns were not being heard.

She said: "For me it was a case of I don't want to look back and feel I didn't do the right thing because I might lose a job."

Ms Head said she saw violent protest action as morally wrong, adding that it does not work as a strategy.

The trial continues.

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