March 16th - Court update from WCA / Vestas crane action that took place last September

This was a 'Workers Climate Action' Blade Blockade action in support of and in solidarity with the Vestas workers who occupied their offices last year after losing their jobs.

After a very long and nerve racking break while the judge deliberated on his verdict he eventually returned to say that he could not help but give a 'guilty' verdict for the charge of aggravated trespass.

He then gave us one of the most lenient sentences available to him.
The two that went guilty (tactical decision) at beginning of the day were given a 12 month conditional discharge and £30 costs each - this included a discount for early guilty plea. The two who went through the trial and were found guilty were given 18 months conditional discharge and £100 costs each. [A certain group had long ago agreed to pay any costs] The CPS was asking the judge for almost £1,000 costs from each of us.

The district judge went on to compliment us repeatedly, as well as the obligatory patronising bit about staying within the law in future and how a criminal record might affect our careers. Personally I could cope with that as I was fully expecting many, many, hours of community service as the one person with a long list of previous.

A huge thanks to our witnesses and to all who came to court, including those who have supported us in so many other ways. I believe that it really helped that the judge saw the wide range of people involved in this campaign and he obviously respected how passionately we all felt about the combined issues of workers struggle and the environment.

For background info see:
 http://savevestas.wordpress.com/2009/09/16/vestas-crane-activists-charged-and-released-the-fight-goes-on/