Four of six anti-Israel activists were found guilty on retrial in a British court on Wednesday of criminal damage for breaking into and vandalizing an Elbit Systems UK facility near Bristol, England, on Aug. 6, 2024.
Charlotte Head, 30, Samuel Corner, 23, Leona Kamio, 30, and Fatema Rajwani, 21, destroyed property and clashed with security guards and police. Zoe Rogers, 22, and Jordan Devlin, 31, were acquitted of the charge by a jury at Woolwich Crown Court earlier.
The vandals caused €1 million ($1.2 million) in damage at the Elbit site, driving through fencing in a decommissioned prison van and then vandalizing equipment with sledgehammers while dressed in red jumpsuits.
“Inside the warehouse, they set about destroying as much property as they could. They used crowbars and hammers to damage computers, equipment, drones and other products Elbit had manufactured,” prosecutor Deeana Heer told the court.
“Their role was to cause as much damage as possible until they were forcibly stopped,” she said.
Two police officers and a security guard were wounded in the attack.
Corner was found guilty of inflicting grievous bodily harm after striking a police sergeant, Kate Evans, with a sledgehammer, fracturing her back during a scuffle with officers and a security guard.
He previously told the court that he “would never want to seriously hurt anyone,” the BBC reported. He was cleared of causing “grievous bodily harm with intent,” a far more serious charge punishable with up to life imprisonment. The lesser charge carries a maximum prison term of five years.
The jury reached its verdict after more than 14 hours of deliberation, the BBC reported.
All six had been acquitted in February of the charge of aggravated burglary following a first trial that began in November. The jury in that trial, which deliberated for more than 36 hours, was unable to reach a verdict on the remaining counts.
That jury acquitted all of the radicals of aggravated burglary, a crime that involves committing a break-in while armed and that can result in life imprisonment.
In targeting the Elbit facility in Bristol, its members accused the company, without evidence, of building combat drones and other military equipment. Elbit Systems UK is owned by Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest privately owned weapons firm. In September, it shuttered the Bristol site following repeated vandalism.
Established in 2020, Palestine Action launched its first assault on July 30 of that year, when it targeted Elbit Systems UK’s headquarters in London. Other companies and institutions attacked by the group have been BAE Systems; Lockheed Martin; Barclays; BNY Mellon; the property firms Bell Group and Fisher German; and the universities of Cambridge, Oxford and Birmingham.
After the radical group broke into RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire and damaged two Voyager aircraft used for cargo and refueling on June 20, 2025, the British government moved to proscribe it, calling it a terrorist organization. However, in February, the U.K. High Court ruled the ban unlawful.
The British government has since appealed that decision.
