Four Palestine Action activists jailed for Filton factory raid, terrorist link

Four Palestine Action activists were jailed at Woolwich Crown Court after a judge ruled their break-in at an Israeli defence factory carried a terrorist connection. The raid on Elbit Systems UK in Filton, near Bristol, turned a protest campaign into a case about criminal damage, public safety and the limits of direct action.

Charlotte Head, Samuel Corner, Leona Kamio and Fatema Rajwani were sentenced on Friday to terms ranging from four years to almost eight years after being convicted in May of criminal damage. Prosecutors said the group used an old prison van to smash into the site on August 6, 2024, then attacked computers, drones and other equipment with sledgehammers and crowbars. The damage was estimated at between £1 million and £1.2 million.

Corner faced the most serious findings. He was also convicted of grievous bodily harm after striking police Sgt. Kate Evans twice with a sledgehammer and fracturing her spine. The court’s decision to apply terrorism sentencing rules underlined how sharply the judge distinguished political motive from the physical scale and danger of the attack.

The Filton case has already moved through one earlier trial. The six defendants in the wider case were first acquitted of aggravated burglary, while jurors could not reach verdicts on criminal damage charges, forcing a retrial. In this round, Zoe Rogers and Jordan Devlin were acquitted of criminal damage, leaving four defendants to be jailed.

The convictions land in the middle of a wider legal fight over Palestine Action itself. The government proscribed the group as a terrorist organisation in July 2025, after the Filton raid had already taken place. In February 2026, the High Court of England and Wales ruled that ban unlawful, but it remains in force pending appeal.

Outside the court, the sentencing drew a major protest. Hundreds gathered in support of the activists, and police made mass arrests as officers moved to clear the crowd. Supporters argued the defendants were carrying out direct action against UK complicity in Israel’s war in Gaza. The judge took the opposite view, treating the raid as an organized attempt to force political change by destroying property and threatening public order.