Press Releases & Updates 2001

Angie (49), from Cromer in Norfolk, handed herself into her local police station last night, expecting to face a 3 month jail sentence. In a joint Trident Ploughshares/Menwith Hill Women’s Peace Campaign action on 19th June 2000, along with Helen John and Anne Lee, she got through the new high security fence at Menwith Hill in Yorkshire in an attempt to dismantle the inner fence that serves to protect the communications array designed to be part of the US Missile Defence system. The women were found guilty of criminal damage at Harrogate Magistrates Court on 30th April and in the same court on 21st May Helen John was sentenced to three months and Anne Lee to two months.

The Harrogate Magistrates today found her guilty of failing to appear but said they did not have enough information to sentence her. Angie asked them to deal with the matter today and went to the length of informing them of her "record" by narrating her recent campaigning and court history. She was given unconditional bail and asked to return to the court on 13th June. Angie then complained that she had been brought all the way from her home in Norwich and the court was ready to leave her stranded in Harrogate with no means to pay her fare home. The shamefaced bench said that there was nothing they could do about that.

Angie said: "The magistrates were clearly embarrassed by the whole business and did not want to send me down. I told them that I had been unable to face coming on the 21st June since I was upset at the way the courts are abusing the law by letting this state off the hook on international humanitarian law. I just could not stand making the same arguments all over again with little obvious hope of getting a genuine hearing. They seemed to understand how I felt."

Additional Contact: Menwith Hill Women’s Peace Campaign: 01943 468593

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