Fairford
BBC | 04.03.2004 10:52 | Anti-militarism
Mrs Percy is married with three children and four grandchildren
Woman says protest was 'peaceful'
A grandmother who scaled Buckingham Palace gates ahead of a visit by President Bush has denied trespassing at an RAF base in Gloucestershire.
Lindis Percy, 62, from Hull, climbed the palace gates and erected a flag to protest against the visit last November
The peace activist went on trial on Tuesday accused of breaking through gates at RAF Fairford last March.
Cirencester Magistrates' Court heard how Ms Percy was discovered by US personnel on the base near an aircraft.
Peaceful protest
Ms Percy is alleged to have got through the fence and hung an upside-down US flag from a plane.
Brendan Moorhouse, prosecuting, said Ms Percy intended to disrupt or obstruct the security maintenance of the base and that her trespass was unlawful.
Ms Percy has denied a charge of aggravated trespass, claiming she was simply there to protest peacefully against the anticipated conflict.
USAF senior airman Johnny Brown described how he helped bring Ms Percy to the ground and handcuffed her after spotting near a plane.
Armed with a rifle, he told the woman to raise her hands and halt, but she did not heed the instructions, the court heard.
Mr Brown said she walked towards him with her hands behind her back, told him she was peaceful and gave her name.
The trial continues.
A grandmother who scaled Buckingham Palace gates ahead of a visit by President Bush has denied trespassing at an RAF base in Gloucestershire.
Lindis Percy, 62, from Hull, climbed the palace gates and erected a flag to protest against the visit last November
The peace activist went on trial on Tuesday accused of breaking through gates at RAF Fairford last March.
Cirencester Magistrates' Court heard how Ms Percy was discovered by US personnel on the base near an aircraft.
Peaceful protest
Ms Percy is alleged to have got through the fence and hung an upside-down US flag from a plane.
Brendan Moorhouse, prosecuting, said Ms Percy intended to disrupt or obstruct the security maintenance of the base and that her trespass was unlawful.
Ms Percy has denied a charge of aggravated trespass, claiming she was simply there to protest peacefully against the anticipated conflict.
USAF senior airman Johnny Brown described how he helped bring Ms Percy to the ground and handcuffed her after spotting near a plane.
Armed with a rifle, he told the woman to raise her hands and halt, but she did not heed the instructions, the court heard.
Mr Brown said she walked towards him with her hands behind her back, told him she was peaceful and gave her name.
The trial continues.
BBC
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Woman cleared of base 'trespass'
05.03.2004 10:15
Lindis Percy, 62, from Hull, was found not guilty of aggravated trespass at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire in March 2003.
Cirencester Magistrates Court heard she had spent four hours there, fixing an upside down American flag to a plane.
But District Judge Paul Clark ruled there was not enough evidence that she intended to disrupt security.
He said there was "no doubt" Ms Percy had entered the base as a trespasser by climbing over the 8ft barbed wire fence.
'Personal protest'
Ms Percy, of Bellfield Avenue, Hull, told the court how she had gone into RAF Fairford, where American B-52 bombers were based, to protest peacefully against the war.
She said the "personal" protest was meant to say that the war was not in her name.
"If I wanted to obstruct or disrupt the workings of the base I would have run round the place and shouted and probably raged about what was being planned but I didn't."
Ms Percy once sparked a massive security alert when she scaled the gates of Buckingham Palace ahead of a state visit by US President George Bush.
The veteran peace campaigner is joint co-ordinator of the Campaign for the Accountability of American Bases.
BBC