Trial date set for six people charged with alleged Palestine Action support

A trial date has been set for six people charged with allegedly organising mass gatherings against the ban on the group Palestine Action.

The charges related to plans for meetings in London, Cardiff and Manchester which were allegedly organised over Zoom in July, August and this month.

Former government lawyer Timothy Crosland, 55, from Southwark, south London; gardener Dawn Manners, 61, from Hackney, east London; David Nixon, 39, from Barnsley, South Yorkshire; student Patrick Friend, 26, of Grange, Edinburgh; Gwen Harrison, 48, from Kendal, Cumbria; and Melanie Griffith, 62, from Southwark, are accused of breaches of the Terrorism Act after allegedly arranging, managing or addressing meetings, knowing that the purpose was to support a proscribed organisation.

Each defendant spoke to confirm their names in the dock during a preliminary hearing at the Old Bailey on Friday.

Nixon remained standing in the dock throughout the hearing with his eyes closed and holding a white banner with the words “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action”.

The defendants are alleged to be members of a group called Defend Our Juries, or to work closely with it, which opposes the ban on Palestine Action.

Prosecutor Peter Ratcliffe told the court the defendants are charged with “a variety of offences” contrary to Section 12 of the Terrorism Act 2000.

“These six defendants have played a role in organising mass civil disobedience… and they have been involved in 13 meetings conducted by Zoom,” he said.

Some 1,500 people have so far been arrested in connection with the offence, the prosecutor said.

Mr Ratcliffe added the defendants’ cases rest on whether the banning of Palestine Action “was unlawful in the first place”, with a judgment from the High Court expected by the end of the year.

Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb set a provisional trial date of June 22 next year, to be heard before a High Court judge with a four-week time estimate.

The judge ordered the defendants to provide PIN codes for access to their seized digital devices by October 10, and granted them conditional bail ahead of their next hearing at the Old Bailey on December 12.

Palestine Action was banned as a terror organisation in July after the group claimed responsibility for an action in which two Voyager planes were damaged at RAF Brize Norton on June 20.