Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Highgate Farm- Trial over.

Victoria W. | 08.05.2009 00:49 | SOCPA

The unexpected events of today and official end of my case

Hi I'm Vikki, I have been one of the four people involved in the trespass case of Highgate Farm. I've decided I should post something on here that explains in brief, what has happened as I think it's important for the activist community to be made aware of and I don't care to trust what the local press will say of this case.

My charge reads as follows:
**Statement Of Offence**
Conspiracy to interfere with contractual relationship so as to harm an animal research oganisation, Contrary to section 1(1) of the Criminal Law Act 1977

**Particulars Of Offence**
Victoria W between the 13th day of April 2008 and the 13th day of October 2008 conspired with (insert co-defendants) with intent to harm a animal research organisation, namely Huntingdon Life Sciences, did a relevant act namely trespass in circumstances in which that act was intended or likely to cause a second person to terminate a contract they had with a third person namely Huntingdon Life Sciences.

So I'm the only one to have gone through with trial and that's mostly because I was/am too stubborn to listen to anyone. From the moment we were arrested, I had never expected the case to be taken this far. I have always thought the prosecutions case could be fought as they lacked any substantial evidence but it did concern me that there was a significant gray area to allow the jury to speculate and to come to any possible conclusions as to why we were there that night.

It had only been in the last couple of days that the prosecution actually decided to approach this case from another angle(yet again) and I guess that's because I was the only one left.According to them I was now the organizer behind this thing (supplying information between individuals and "showing all the confidence of a conspirator" even though I have never been cautioned or arrested before) and it was our purpose to intentionally trigger silent alarms,making ourselves known, in order to scare/intimidate the farmer into terminating any contracts he may have had (at one point this argument was being used on top of us planning to carry out a recce at a future date...makes sense?)

Everyday of the trial has involved further admissions of evidence and this includes: hundreds of leaflets, placards, footage/images of lawful protests we've been on(under only a 6 week period of association together and particular reference to the legal campaign group, SHAC), reconfirming our admittance of trespass more than once via soil analysis etc, cctv footage from the farm of us on the night in question for a matter of seconds, head torches, phone records, collection tin etc. I'll let you draw your own conclusions as to whether this amounts to damning evidence against us or not but most importantly, we had the written and verbal evidence from the farmer himself; who explicitly stated that no damage or loss was suffered at all and that it did not even occur to him that any contract would have been interfered with (much to the prosecutors disappointment)

Which leads me onto today. I went in feeling unhappy this morning as I had just started being cross examined by the prosecution yesterday and she had yet to finish with me! However,yesterday, the judge had asked us to attend half an hour earlier before the jury arrived today, in order to give his reasons for why he thought there was a case to answer for, in response to my solicitors submission that there was not.

Today he said he carefully considered everything last night and to our shock, he had changed his mind; there was no case to answer for. He gave the opportunity for the prosecution to decide on what they wished be done and the judge said he would need a lot of persuading to think differently. They had the opportunity to appeal the ruling but have decided not to.

At 2pm today the jury were directed by the judge to return a Not Guilty verdict. I think the best part of today was to see the jury's approval. I was so worried about how they perceived AR activists but throughout the judge's explanation of this ruling, they nodded in agreement. One woman kept smiling at me and apparently they smiled to friends/family in the public gallery as they exited. So, although I've been found not guilty under these circumstances, it's good to know that the jury approved and hopefully have left with a different view of activists than the generally negative image reported in the media - not to mention they got to have a read of some of the leaflets : )

Well I hope that was of some interest. I probably haven't explained that brilliantly but I am still finding things pretty surreal! Over half a year of 7pm-7am curfews, no communication with co-defendants, no participation in protests for animal rights or anything else,banning from Lincolnshire, surrendering of passport, moving back to my old town,transferring my education, numerous journeys to court/legal meetings, detained for 3 days and imprisoned for a week...and now it's finally over! : P

So thank you to everyone that wrote to me in prison and who have given me advice etc throughout. I don't think I would have coped with this situation if that support wasn't there.

Love and thanks,
Vikki (Please continue to support the boys as they are still awaiting sentence-thank you)

P.S Application for an ASBO is likely. The judge is particularly keen on making it known that he does not approve of trespass and the result of this case does not mean he finds our act of trespass acceptable behaviour.

Victoria W.

Comments

Hide the following 10 comments

well done

08.05.2009 07:09

good on ya - nor recover well.

lm


3 pleaded guilty to an offence that didn't happen?

08.05.2009 07:26

They must be feeling very sore!

Can they appeal?

Jacob


Compensation for the last year?

08.05.2009 12:26

Well done Vikki!

As it was decided that there wasn't a case to answer have you considered taking the police to court for Malicious Prosecution.

Youve had your life wrecked for the last year therefore you deserve some compensation

Screwy Lewy


local press

08.05.2009 12:26

Unusually the story on the local rag's website (which is part of the daily mail group) isn't too bad -  http://www.thisislincolnshire.co.uk/news/Student-cleared-rabbit-farm-raid/article-973143-detail/article.html
Don't know what they'll say in the actual paper though!

localyokel


Don.t forget the others!

08.05.2009 16:48

congratulations.

Hopefully this will show the case for affinity and solidarity within groups in all areas of direct action. The need now is to make sure that the lads are well supported at their sentencing and not forgotten by the rest of the community.

Also, with the prosecution desperate to find a ringleader to pin the weight of blame on, it highlights how confusing the authorities find the autonomous affinity group model which makes decisions by consensus without a leader.

The classical view of this to which they mostly still adhere is that a conspiricy must have some kind of coordinator and in this case they have tried to pin this on being the one that they could try to push for the heaviest sentence by virtue of pleading not guilty to a crime they have been proven in court not to commit.

What is needed now is a show of solidarity and support, not just from animal rights activists but the whole community. Also remember to be sensible in what you write to any of our prisoners as the jail wardens read everything that is sent.

Free the highgave 3!

JimDog*


Not much hope of compensation

08.05.2009 17:30

Can't see much prospect of compensation:-

Judge Brown said: "The farmer himself confirmed that they had suffered no damage on that occasion. He said he did not feel his company would go out of business as a result of the trespass on his land on that date.

"I am not saying this in any way to exonerate, applaud or excuse the behaviour of somebody who trespasses on another person's land, less so in camouflage in the middle of the night."

Judge Brown


No Comment / Not Guilty!

08.05.2009 18:24

Excellent news.

I've long been of the opinion that a guilty plea is the right way to go. Any time you get knocked off is minimal and it means you are guaranteed jail-time. A not-guilty plea has a (small) hope that the jury will find you not guilty or that the judge will decide that there is no case to show as happened here.

No Comment in the station and Not-Guilty in court...

All solidarity with those still on bail/remand though.

{A}


Support The Highgate Three

08.05.2009 20:33

Please send letter of support to:

LUKE STEELE (WJ4308) WJ 4308,Glen Parva 10,Tigers Road,Wigston,Leicester,LE18 4TN

DEAN CAIN (WJ4309)
WJ 4309,Nottingham Prison,Perry Road,Sherwood,Nottingham,NG5 3AG

If you want to be extra awesome you can send in postal orders made out to HMPS, with prisoner name/number and sender details on the back. So they can buy extra scoff, books, cds etc (It may be best to write beforehand if you'd like to send something in just in case)

Dean would also love if people could send in anarchist literature (We are uncertain about books being received so it might be wise to photocopy/print off).

Luke has told us he hopes to take a degree in Art history,so any literature to help would be greatly appreciated (Again,uncertain about sending in books).

Support Dean and Luke
- Homepage: http://www.myspace.com/supportthehighgatefour


Correction.

09.05.2009 12:16

Obviously in my last comment I meant:

I've long been of the opinion that a *NOT* guilty plea is the right way to go.

{A}


Not guilty

10.05.2009 21:04

Agreed. Not guilty is the way to go. Even if you the odds seem against you, it's better to show the resistance and not give the cops/government such an easy time! Not to mention, guilty pleas just reinforce this negative stereotype of AR activists.

Vegan


Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech