Footage used in the trial of six Palestine Action activists facing charges connected to a break-in to an Israeli-owned arms factory contains “perceived gaps”, a UK court has heard.
Defendants Charlotte Head, 29, Jordan Devlin, 31, Fatema Rajwani, 21, Zoe Rogers, 22, Samuel Corner, 23, and Leona Kamio, 30, face charges of criminal damage in connection with a break-in to a factory owned by Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems near Bristol in August 2024.
Corner additionally faces a charge of causing grievous bodily harm with intent for allegedly striking a police officer with a sledgehammer.
At Woolwich Crown Court on Thursday, jurors heard evidence from PC Sarah Grant, a CCTV recovery officer tasked with retrieving the security footage from Elbit Systems.
She said that the factory’s security camera system was “not fit for purpose”, and that multiple cameras were recording at a frame-rate of 17 frames per second.
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Lead defence counsel Rajiv Menon KC, when cross-examining Grant, noted issues relating to “what was perceived as gaps” in the security footage shown as evidence.
The court heard that Elbit had initially supplied the police with footage from nine cameras on a USB stick, however the footage was not playable on police computers so Grant was instructed to attend the site in person to recover it.
When asked by Menon how she conducted this process, Grant said she was initially shown footage from nine cameras and then requested to see more. She said she viewed the footage from all 53 cameras on multiple monitors on a video wall in the Elbit Systems’ security control room.
She said that she tried to download footage from all 53 cameras, but this proved to be impossible as it would take around 24 days.
Grant said she subsequently chose to download footage from the initial nine, and then from a further three cameras she had identified as relevant.
When questioned by prosecutor Deanna Heer KC, Grant said that in the 11 years she had served in her role she had “never come across a system as frustrating and as difficult to download”.
She noted that some of the cameras were recording on a frame-rate as low as 17 frames per second.
She stated that she was “absolutely” satisfied that she had “downloaded all relevant footage”.
Menon noted that Grant did not obtain footage from two cameras on the factory floor. When asked if she had asked anyone in the Elbit Systems control room to explain the absence of the footage from these cameras, she responded “no”.
Menon suggested that Grant was perhaps never shown the footage from the two cameras.
“I saw all the cameras. I had control and they showed me what I asked them to show,” Grant responded.
The court also heard that, in an email sent to a senior security manager at Elbit, identified as Witness A, Grant raised concerns about the fitness for purpose of the security system, warning that “there is a huge opportunity for the defence to use the jumps and gaps in the footage to their advantage”.
When questioned about this correspondence by Menon, Grant said she was trying to highlight that the “system is not fit for purpose”.
‘I was protecting her’
On Friday, the court also heard evidence from PC Kate Evans, who was allegedly struck with a sledgehammer by Corner.
Jurors heard that Evans was struck while on the floor on her hands and knees facing away from Corner while trying to adjust handcuffs on Rogers.
Evans said she felt the impact “disperse across my whole body”.
“I didn’t know if I could move, or whether I would be paralysed,” Evans told the court.
Her colleague PC Peter Adams told the court that Corner hit Evans with a “considerable amount of force”.
The court heard that Evans was unable to return to work until three months after the incident, that she experiences daily pain and is constrained to restricted duties.
Heer noted that Evans had said in a statement closer to the time of the incident that Corner said following his arrest: “I was protecting her.”
Evans said she thought he was referring to one of his female co-defendants but did not indicate specifically which one.
The court heard that, at the time of the alleged attack, Corner’s co-defendant Kamio was screaming as she was being tackled by Adams, who had deployed a taser at her moments before.
Lawyer Tom Wainwright, who represents Corner, noted that Adams said in video evidence given to the police the following day that he recalled hearing a “horrible scream”.
When questioned by Wainwright, PC Aaron Buxton said that, prior to the alleged attack, he had sprayed Corner with PAVA Spray.
Wainwright explained that the spray is an incapacitant that can cause pain, confusion and disorientation which “lasts for some time”.
The trial continues.