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.

EDO Boss Hills Gets Grilled In Court

x | 02.08.2012 15:59 | Smash EDO | Anti-militarism | Technology | South Coast

 http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/9851767.EDO_boss_gets_grilling_at_Brighton_protest_trial/

EDO MBM Paul Hills faced difficult questions in Brighton Magistrates this wee

EDO boss gets grilling at Brighton protest trial

9:00am Thursday 2nd August 2012 in News By Ben Parsons

Paul Hills, managing director of EDO, has been giving evidence at the trial of two anti-arms protesters from campaign group Smash EDO .

Under cross-examination he spelled out a range of arms contracts the factory is involved in and said the firm is not breaking UK law.

Jessica Nero and Gavin Pidwell deny committing aggravated trespass by gluing and locking themselves to the gates of the factory in Home Farm Road, Moulsecoomb, on April 26 last year.

Their defence is that they were not obstructing or disrupting people in their lawful activity because the work of the factory was not lawful.

Mr Hills was called as a witness to the protest but was also questioned for more than three hours about the company’s work.

He confirmed the factory makes a cable called a field replaceable connector system (FRCS) for Tornado aircraft. The “umbilical” cable – which looks like a washing machine hose – gives guidance information to a bomb and separates from it when it is dropped.

He said the firm does not currently make them for the US government. But he confirmed the firm does have a “development contract” with arms company Lockheed Martin to design them for the F35 joint strike fighter.
Related links

Smash Edo

The programme involves the UK, as well as the United States and Israel – who are not bound by the UK’s Cluster Munitions (Prohibitions) Act.

The law makes it illegal to assist any other person in using a cluster bomb – a bomb which releases smaller bombs.

Victoria Kerly, defending Nero, asked Mr Hills whether he could be sure the FRCS cables EDO makes would not be used as part of a mechanism to release cluster bombs.

She said: “You cannot be certain that your product which ends up on planes for the American air force does not enable the use of cluster bombs, can you?”

Mr Hills said: “We are very clear what it is used for. We have not been used to qualify for fitting to any weapons that are classified under the Cluster Munitions (Prohibition) Act 2010.

“I can’t stop somebody doing something wilfully with our product without our knowledge.”

He later said: “If somebody wilfully chooses to do that, we are not assisting in doing so.”

He said Israel does not use the versions of the F16 for which EDO supplies cables.

Miss Kerly produced promotional material used by EDO in 2007 including a claim that its FRCS cable had been “fitted and tested” for equipment used by NATO countries including a “joint standoff weapon”.

Mr Hills said the equipment had not been “qualified and sold” or supplied for that weapon and he did not think it was a cluster bomb. He also said a presentation described by EDO’s design director at a conference in Seattle this year which included references to “sub munitions dispensing from munitions” did not refer to cluster bombs. He said: “The technology we are looking to develop here does not cross into the boundary of the cluster munitions prohibition act 2010. The submunitions we are looking at do not contravene that act.”

Nero, 35, of Graham Road, Mitcham, Surrey, and Gavin Pidwell, 26, of no fixed abode, are due to return to court today (August 2), when police officers are expected to give evidence about the protest.

The magistrates are not expected to reach verdicts until a further hearing later this month.

x
- Homepage: http://www.smashedo.org.uk

Comments

Display the following 7 comments

  1. JSOW cluster bomb videos — smedley butler
  2. Joint Stand Off Weapon = JSOW — Paul Hills LIES
  3. not seeing this — Lok
  4. glue on — wax off
  5. @lok — clarification
  6. lok baby — lok
  7. the point you miss is — more clarification
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