More than 70 pro-Palestine activists were arrested outside Woolwich Crown Court on Friday on suspicion of supporting a proscribed terrorist organisation, as hundreds gathered to demonstrate ahead of the sentencing of four Palestine Action members convicted over a raid on an Israeli arms manufacturer’s UK factory.
The Metropolitan Police confirmed 72 people had been detained for allegedly expressing support for Palestine Action, with all remaining in custody. Around 500 protesters had gathered outside the court, according to LBC and Brit Brief, ahead of Mr Justice Jeremy Johnson passing sentence on Charlotte Head, 23, Samuel Corner, 30, Leona Kamio, 30, and Fatema Rajwani, 21.
The four were convicted on 5 May of criminal damage following a raid on the Elbit Systems UK site near Bristol in the early hours of 6 August 2024, in which the group drove an old prison van into the facility and went on to damage equipment including Israeli quadcopter drones, causing approximately £1 million worth of damage. Corner was additionally convicted of inflicting grievous bodily harm on Police Sergeant Kate Evans, who suffered a fractured spine during the incident and required three months off work and spinal surgery to recover, with ongoing back pain since. The Avon and Somerset Police Federation described the attack on Evans as “despicable,” saying: “This wasn’t protest. This was violent and deliberate thuggery that has had devastating consequences for a courageous and dedicated police officer.” Prosecutor Deanna Heer KC told the earlier trial the raid had been “meticulously organised” to cause “as much damage as possible and obtain information about the company.”
Two further defendants, Zoe Rogers and Jordan Devlin, were acquitted of all charges, while all six members of the so-called “Filton 24” had previously been cleared of the most serious charges of aggravated burglary and violent disorder following an earlier trial in which the jury could not reach verdicts on several counts.
Friday’s sentencing has been described by campaigners as a potentially historic moment in UK protest law. According to openDemocracy, the four convicted activists could become the first protesters sentenced as terrorists in Britain, after the government formally proscribed Palestine Action under terrorism legislation in July 2025. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper had cited the Elbit raid directly when announcing the ban, telling MPs in June 2025: “In several attacks, Palestine Action has committed acts of serious damage to property with the aim of progressing its political cause and influencing the Government.” The proscription was subsequently challenged and found unlawful by the High Court in February 2026, though it remains in force while the government appeals.
Campaign group Defend Our Juries had separately sought to have Mr Justice Johnson removed from the case ahead of sentencing, submitting a complaint to the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office accusing him of “manifest bias and discrimination” against the defendants, according to the Jewish Chronicle. Novara Media reported that significant aspects of the sentencing process had been kept from the jury and the public, with the use of terrorism legislation in the case resting solely on the property damage caused during the raid.
The scale of Friday’s arrests reflects the intensity of feeling the case has generated on both sides — for supporters, a test of the boundaries of legitimate protest against companies linked to Israel’s defence industry amid the war in Gaza; for critics, including police representatives, a case defined by serious violence against an officer and significant criminal damage that has nothing to do with peaceful demonstration.
