THIS is the terrifying moment a Palestine Action protestor allegedly attacks a police officer with a sledgehammer.
Police bodycam footage shows the harrowing moment the activist swings the heavy hammer at officers during a break-in at an Israeli defence firm’s UK site.
A court was told six members of the proscribed organisation wearing red boiler suits used a prison van to gain entry to the Elbit Systems factory.
The “organised” assault on the facility in Bristol unfolded in the early hours of August 6 last year.
Charlotte Head, 29, Samuel Corner, 23, Leona Kamio, 30, Fatema Rajwani, 21, Zoe Rogers, 22, and Jordan Devlin, 31, are jointly accused of aggravated burglary, criminal damage and violent disorder – they deny all charges.
Harrowing footage from the break-in shows the moment officers from Avon and Somerset Police arrive at the factory after the break-in.
The cops storm the factory floor, shouting as they rush into the facility to apprehend the activists.
Several of the campaigners turn to confront the cops, with at least one wielding a heavy headed hammer.
Security guards, presumably employed by the factory, are already on the scene and appear to be covered in foam as they try to restrain the activists.
When the officers arrive they begin demanding the campaigners give up as one security guard rushes forward and wrenches a hammer from the hands of a boiler suit clad protester.
As he does one of the protestor’s alleged accomplices swings their own sledgehammer at the security guard.
An officer rushes in to help and tries to tackle the attacking Palestine Action protestor.
The cop, protestor and security guard end up wrestling in a desperate battle.
During the brawl all three fall to the floor, the cop and the security guard then manage to get the protestor under control and try to cuff them.
Before they can fully restrain them the activist manages to get out from under the officer.
As the video blurs police sergeant Evans turns to look up to one of the activists standing over her.
A brutal swing of the hammer follows with the activist appearing to bring the blunt instrument down on the prone sergeant’s back.
The activist then launches themself at the dazed officer, ending up on top of her before the two begin wrestling again.
Sergeant Evans is left unable to defend herself from the renewed attack and ends up fleeing the activist.
She struggles to her feet and runs away from the assaulting campaigner, trying desperately to put some distance between herself and the hammer-wielding protestor.
Activist Samuel Corner is accused of striking police sergeant Kate Evans on the back with a sledgehammer, causing grievous bodily harm.
The blow left sergeant Evans with a fracture to her lumbar spine, Corner denies the charge.
Fellow officers PS Evans, PC Aaron Buxton and PC Peter Adams gave evidence at Woolwich Crown Court on Monday.
Jurors were shown police bodycam footage of officers confronting the suspects.
The activists were allegedly allegedly spreading red paint around the factory and smashing the company’s property with sledgehammers, the court heard.
After the officers arrived on the chaotic scene the activists turned their attention on the cops – this is when the brawl that broke sergeant Evans’s back broke out, the jury was told.
“As he has reached us he has swung the sledgehammer multiple times towards me,” PC Buxton said.
“I was scared. I believe it made contact with my right calf and my work radio. I had quite considerable pain down that area of my leg following it and also I had some bruising come up.”
PC Buxton told jurors he then saw the man strike PS Evans in the back as she was trying to arrest another suspect.
Sergeant Evans told the court: “I can remember looking up and PC Adams for some reason had a shocked face on him, and then I had a pain in my back.
“It was just a massive shock vibrating through my whole back, a thud on my back through my whole body extended down to my legs.”
She added that she she thought her “spine was shattered”, saying: “I can remember putting my right foot down and pain shot up.”
Jurors were told that when the suspects were in custody injured sergeant Evans went to check on her attacker, who was complaining his handcuffs were too tight.
Corner was allegedly accusing officers of being “complicit in genocide” and said “something about murdering babies.”
Sergeant Evans said she needed help getting in and out of the shower after the incident and took painkillers to deal with the “intense pain.”
The incident left her unable to work for three months, the court was told.
Palestine Action has been “proscribed” and “branded a terror group” by the home secretary after activists from the pro-Palestinian group broke into RAF Brize Norton.
The move, which came after activists vandalised military aircraft on the RAF base, means it is illegal to be a member of the group.
Consequences of Terrorism Act offences
Source; Met Police
•A maximum sentence of six months’ imprisonment.
•The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) will have a record of a person’s TACT conviction, and this will be seen by employers who use DBS to carry out checks on staff or new applicants. The existence of a TACT conviction may be seen by employers as grounds for a refusal to employ a person or to dismiss them.
•Universities also carry out DBS checks, and may refuse entry to courses to those with terrorism convictions.
•Any application to visit another country usually requires a declaration of criminal convictions. A TACT conviction will be a potential bar to entry to countries including the US, Australia, Japan, and from 2026 when the ETIAS system is introduced, countries of the European Union.
•If a person is a member of a professional body, they may face disciplinary proceedings and potentially removal from the profession.
