![\"Protestors](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/wales_online_892\/96bfb98f70df30c575b84ab0e6df29bd.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\nSeven people have been charged with public order offences in connection with a protest that took place outside Wales’ biggest convention centre on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Protestors were seen using their bodies to block traffic entering the Celtic Manor Resort and International Convention Centre Wales (ICC Wales), where the Defence Security Resilience Cymru summit was held. The arms event attracted exhibitors from across the defence industry.<\/p>\n
Peace activists, anti-war groups, and residents from across Wales arrived outside the venue in Newport early in the morning with the aim to stop the arms event from taking place.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Protestors can be seen holding signs that read “Arms kill children and innocent people. Stop this death economy.” -Credit:John Myers<\/p>\n
The Welsh Government<\/a> has been criticised for being part of organising the event alongside a subsidiary of General Dynamics – one of the world’s largest arms companies and a supplier of weapons to the Israeli military.<\/p>\n Protestors placed themselves on the bridge – some gluing themselves to the floor – which overlooks the M4<\/a> motorway and leads to the convention centre, blocking the road. With them they brought signs, banners, megaphones and Welsh flags.<\/p>\n Drivers and local residents noted a large armed police presence in the area at the time.<\/p>\n A number of people have gathered on the road leading to the ICC in Newport in protest against an arms fair taking place there on Thursday -Credit:John Myers<\/p>\n In an update on Friday, police said seven people, all from Wales, aged between 20 and 72, have been charged with locking on to a person\/object\/land to cause serious disruption.<\/p>\n Their previous update stated that eight people had been arrested at the scene. The 72-year-old woman from Caerphilly who was arrested was released with no further action.<\/p>\n A spokesperson for Gwent Police<\/a> said: “We attended a planned protest outside the Defence Security Resilience Cymru event being held in Newport on Thursday 3 September.<\/p>\n “Officers made eight arrests in connection with the protest.<\/p>\n “Following the arrests, Tiegan Burrows, 23, of Ombersley Road, Newport; Emilia Chilcott, 22, of Colum Road, Cardiff<\/a>; Sophia Damerell, 20, of Y Cilgant, Bangor<\/a>; Leigh Evans, 55, of NFA, Swansea<\/a>; Christina Jenkins, 33, of Chestnut Green, Cwmbran; Deirdre Murphy, 72, of Heathfield, Swansea; Patrick Walker, 37, of Harlequin Drive, Newport, were all charged with locking on to a person\/object\/land to cause serious disruption.<\/p>\n “They have all been released on conditional bail to appear in court at a later date.<\/p>\n “A 72-year-old woman from Caerphilly who was previously arrested on suspicion of breaching the peace has been released with no further action.”<\/p>\n Superintendent Esyr Jones said: “We will always be fair and proportionate in our response to any public gathering, as the right to lawful protest is a key part of any democracy that UK police services uphold and facilitate.<\/p>\n “Our officers were required to make eight arrests for attendees whose behaviour was unacceptable and enquiries are ongoing.”<\/p>\n Get daily breaking news updates on your phone by joining our WhatsApp community here<\/a>. We occasionally treat members to special offers, promotions and ads from us and our partners. See our Privacy Notice<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Seven people have been charged with public order offences in connection with a protest that took place outside…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9045,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5311,14,5309,5308,5307,2851,5310,4476,5238],"class_list":["post-9044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-72-year-old","tag-defence-industry","tag-icc-wales","tag-international-convention-centre-wales","tag-john-myers","tag-newport","tag-thursday","tag-wales","tag-welsh"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9044\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/wales_online_892\/ba987d2bc9bdc71d10463fc6c4ead702.jpg\"\/)
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