Palestine Action
The break-in happened in August 2024
A 23-year-old man accused of hitting a police officer with a sledgehammer has been described as a “caring, gentle and compassionate” man.
Samuel Corner is one of six activists accused of carrying out an attack on the Bristol factory of the Israel-based defence firm, Elbit Systems on 6 August 2024.
Corner does not deny striking police sergeant Kate Evans with a sledgehammer, fracturing her spine the jury was earlier told, but says he did it in defence of other activists and denies causing her serious harm.
In his closing speech at Woolwich Crown Court, Samuel Wainwright, defending, also described Corner as “an academic, an Oxford graduate, a mathematician, a linguist and a philosopher”.
He said that Corner was “clearly very intelligent, but also noticeably someone that excels in branches of subjects concerned with the theoretical, not the practical, translating languages, not using them in public to communicate”.
Corner is standing trial alongside fellow Palestine Action activists Leona Kamio, 30, Fatema Rajwani, 21, Zoe Rogers, 22, and Jordan Devlin, 31 and Charlotte Head, 29.
They are each charged with aggravated burglary, criminal damage and violent disorder after a prison van was driven through the facility’s fence and activists allegedly used sledgehammers to destroy equipment.
They all deny the charges and Corner denies a further charge of causing grievous bodily harm.
The court heard that before the incident Corner had not taken part in any direct action.
The jury also heard that Corner, who is autistic, was sprayed with a substance similar to pepper spray by a security guard before he struck Sgt Evans.
‘No intent to continue’
Wainwright told the court that Corner was in “an unfamiliar place, an unfamiliar scenario, alarms going off, with a liquid toxic smell to the air”.
“Imagine how Mr Corner would have been feeling,” Wainwright said.
“Then you add in Leona Kamio’s screams [as she was being arrested],” he added.
Jurors heard Corner “genuinely thought” that Kamio or Rogers was being seriously injured when he brought the sledgehammer down on to Sgt Evans.
Sgt Evans previously told the trial she thought her spine was “shattered” when she was hit on her lower back while on her knees arresting a female activist.
The court previously heard she suffered a fractured spine and bruising as a result of the incident and was unable to return to work for three months.
Prosecutors said Corner struck Sgt Evans twice, but the officer told the court she only remembers being struck once.
“There was no sign that he was intending to continue,” Wainwright said.