TWO pro-Palestine protesters who participated in a protest which caused more than £1 million worth of damage to a weapons equipment factory have succeeded in having their prison terms reduced.
Calum Lacy, 23, and Stuart Bretherton, 25, were given 12-month jail terms following proceedings at Glasgow Sheriff Court earlier this year.
They were part of a group that scaled a roof, unfurled banners and set off pyrotechnics at the Thales UK building in the city’s Govan area on June 1, 2022.
The court heard how two of them entered the building itself and a smoke bomb was thrown into an area where staff were being evacuated.
Bretherton and Lacy and accomplices Erica Hygate, 23, and Eva Simmons, 25, received 12-month sentences, while Sumaya Javaid, 22, was jailed for 14 months.
There were shouts of "free Palestine" and "you are preventing genocide" by supporters in the public gallery as the five were led into custody.
However, lawyers for Lacy and Bretherton went to the Court of Criminal Appeal on Tuesday to argue that Sheriff John McCormick was wrong to impose 12-month terms on their clients.
They argued that evidence available to the court showed that Lacy and Bretherton did not carry out their illegal activity for as long as their co-accused.
Judges Lord Beckett and Lord Doherty were told that Sheriff McCormick should have taken this into account and imposed shorter terms on the pair.
The appeal judges agreed with the submissions made to them by lawyers and reduced their sentences by two months. The duo will now have to serve 10 months in custody.
Edinburgh Sheriff Court heard how the French firm Thales manufactures a wide range of military equipment including drone components.
It has often been targeted by activists because it has partnerships with Israeli companies, although it denies it supplies the Israeli military.
In his sentencing statement, Sheriff McCormick said the group had been spotted at the site early in the morning, dressed in red overalls, as they scaled the security fence.
They made it onto the roof of the main building where they unfurled banners and flags, as more protesters gathered outside.
"Miss Hygate and Miss Javaid entered the building through the roof and caused damage including to parts essential to submarines," the sheriff said.
"Fire alarms were activated which caused an evacuation and confusion as well as panic among staff.
"You set off pyrotechnics and smoke bombs - some thrown in the area where staff were evacuated. The smoke was dangerously close to the members of staff.”
Some protesters remained on the roof overnight and glued their hands to the building to prevent police from removing them.
The damage was estimated at £1,130,783 and the site was shut due to safety concerns.
The sheriff said the figure did not include the cost of the public purse of the police operation which involved more than 20 officers.
He said everyone had a right to lawful protest but he disputed a claim in a background report that the group's actions were "non-violent".
"Throwing pyrotechnics at areas where people are being evacuated to cannot be described as non-violent," he said.
Bretherton, of Kilmacolm, Renfrewshire, Simmons, of London, Lacy of Edinburgh, Hygate and Javaid - both from Birmingham - admitted conducting themselves in a disorderly manner.
Hygate and Javaid admitted malicious mischief charges, while Javaid also pled guilty to behaving in a threatening or abusive manner.
