The Filton Gag Order Just Lifted. Look What The Judge Was Hiding From The Jury

The jury convicted criminal damage, but the Judge has terrorism sentencing as an option still. A media gag order blocked reporting on this - until now. Right, so on the 12th of May, the reporting restrictions came off the Filton case, and what was sitting underneath them has finally been allowed into public view. Mr Justice Johnson - sitting in the Crown Court - made a ruling back in March 2025, before the first trial of the Palestine Action defendants had even begun, that there appeared to be a terrorist connection to what they did at the Elbit Systems factory in Filton, near Bristol, in August 2024. That ruling was kept from the jury in the first trial. It was kept from the jury in the second trial. And it has been kept from the public until now. Two juries sat through the case. The first cleared the defendants of aggravated burglary and failed to reach verdicts on criminal damage; the second convicted four of criminal damage, while still being kept away from the terrorism consequence Johnson had already ruled appeared to sit behind the case. Four of them - Charlotte Head, Samuel Corner, Leona Kamio and Fatema Rajwani - were convicted of criminal damage on the 5th of May. Samuel Corner was also convicted of grievous bodily harm without intent, and cleared of GBH with intent. Two others - Zoe Rogers and Jordan Devlin - were acquitted of criminal damage, despite having admitted it, so fathom that one out. All six had already been cleared of aggravated burglary at the earlier trial where the jury could not reach verdicts on the criminal damage charge. Sentencing is provisionally listed for the 12th of June at Woolwich Crown Court, and the four convicted are now remanded in custody until that date. The mechanism Johnson is expected to use is section 69 of the Sentencing Act 2020.