Five Palestine Action (PA) supporters who sprayed red paint on the frontage of Barclays bank in Burnley in August 2024 and splintered the glass of some windows, were convicted at Preston crown court of criminal damage in June this year. They are due to be sentenced on 4 September.
Judge Philip Parry denied the jury of 10 the right to acquit according to their conscience and ordered a unanimous guilty verdict. He also tried to intimidate the public gallery by saying that any verbal show of dissent would be referred to the police.
Parry later informed the defendants’ barristers that he is considering sentencing on the basis that the actions have a ‘terrorist connection’. This is despite the fact that Palestine Action was not proscribed under the Terrorism Act until July 2025, a year after the ‘offences’ were committed.
If the ‘terrorism connection’ is applied, the five could face lengthy prison sentences, and will not be eligible for parole until they have served two thirds of their time, and then this is only likely to be granted if they ‘show remorse’ by rescinding their political views. They will also be subject to ‘terrorism notification’, meaning that for 15 years they must keep the police informed of any new devices, relationships, bank accounts and addresses.
In threatening to invoke the terrorism connection, Parry produced the guidelines from Judge Justice Johnson who in May sentenced four of the Filton 25 to more than six years each for damaging Israeli quadcopter drones at Elbit’s arms factory near Bristol, using this power.
Parry claimed that the cost of the damage of £212,805.14 brought the ‘offence’ into the ‘terrorism’ bracket. This is entirely bogus. On 27 January 2023 seven Extinction Rebellion protesters were spared jail after being convicted of breaking windows at Barclays’ HQ at Canary Wharf in London causing £500,000 damage and there was no suggestion that their conviction was terrorism related.
The CPS is arguing that the ‘terrorism connection’ should be applied because four of the five defendants, under cross examination, revealed connections to Palestine Action and its campaign against Barclays’ support for Elbit that went beyond what they had said in their original defence statements.
The Labour government and the courts it oversees show a steely determination to criminalise the resistance of the Palestinian people and all those who support it. We must be equally determined in our continued determination to resist.
Victory to the Barclays 5! Resistance is not terrorism!
Peter Holden
