The Edmonton five
Heard before His Honour Judge Mervyn Roberts
Crown Prosecution Service: Mr Christopher Ball QC and Mr Morris
Defending: Mr Owen Davies QC and Ms Judy Khan
It was agreed before the trial began that the five defendants would face a single charge of criminal damage to property.
The case for the prosecution was opened by Mr Christopher Ball QC who told the jury that the Crown did not dispute that there were two sides to the argument over the safety of waste incineration but that the issues at stake were what the defendants had done while at the top of the Edmonton chimney, their state of mind at the time and whether any lawful excuse existed. Mr Ball outlined the events of October 9th 2000 when Greenpeace volunteers had begun the occupation of the incinerator and he then circulated police photographs of the top of the chimney immediately after the occupation ended to show the various ropes and guys that were used during the action.
The first prosecution witness was Mr Steven Brown, Operations Director for London Waste Ltd, which owns the plant. Mr Brown briefly outlined the history of the plant and then went on to describe his own experiences of the Greenpeace occupation.
During cross examination by Mr Davies, Mr Brown conceded that although the plant had resumed operations from October 15th (two days after the action ended) the alleged external "damage" was not repaired until the following January. He also conceded that he had not heard of the Stockholm Convention which controlled discharges of dangerous chemicals to the environment and which was signed on May 23rd this year. Mr Brown also conceded that emissions limits on incinerators had been tighted substantially in 1996 and 2001. Asked whether the Edmonton incinerator discharged dangerous substances, Mr Brown seemed unsure but finally agreed that arsenic, which is discharged from Edmonton, was to be considered a dangerous chemical.
