10th January 2008: Jail for graffiti grannies (UK)

By BRIAN FERGUSON
The Scotsman

WHEN police were called to a report of vandals painting slogans on a courthouse wall they found two elderly women, paint pots still in hand, freely admitting what they had done.
Georgina Smith and Helen John chose Remembrance Day to daub slogans such as "No cluster bombs" and "UK values? What values?" on to the High Court in Edinburgh.

The pensioners, aged 77 and 69 respectively, refused to admit they did anything wrong, despite causing £3,600 worth of damage. And yesterday they were behind bars after a sheriff sent them to Cornton Vale, Scotland's only all-female prison, for 45 and 40 days each.

The pair are veteran peace campaigners, having both been involved in the early years of the Greenham Common peace camp.

In recent years they have been familiar figures in protests staged outside the Faslane naval base in Helensburgh. Both have a string of previous convictions for offences arising out of other protests.

John, a former midwife, of Keighley, West Yorkshire, took part in the original march from Cardiff to Greenham Common in 1981 and was among those to chain herself to the fence of the military base.

In 1999 John was caught cutting through the fence at the Royal Navy's depot at Coulport, near Faslane, claiming her actions were justified because nuclear weapons were illegal under international law.

Smith, of Acharacle, in the West Highlands, is the owner of former Ministry of Defence land at Peaton Wood, near Faslane, which has housed several major peace camps. She was arrested along with former Labour MP George Galloway and the then Scottish Socialist Party leader Tommy Sheridan at a mass demonstration at Faslane in 2001. Both Smith and John were arrested during the start of a huge year-long protest at Faslane in October 2006, but charges against them were later dropped.

Weeks later they turned up at the High Court in Edinburgh, spending 15 minutes on their handiwork, which included phrases like "UK cluster bombs base products of evil work" and "Respect the war dead".

Trident Ploughshares campaigner Angie Zelter said: "These women are very long-standing campaigners who have devoted a huge amount of their lives to protesting all over the UK, at huge cost to themselves. They command a huge amount of respect."

Smith and John were last year found guilty of malicious damage to the Lawnmarket building following a hearing at Edinburgh Sheriff Court, when both women had to be prevented from making political speeches.

At the time they were warned by Sheriff Richard Macfarlane that they would be jailed if they were unwilling to pay compensation. Yesterday he said he had been left with "no alternative" but to jail them.

John told him: "If I accept any of the offers of the court I am admitting that I have done something wrong, and I can't accept that I did. You are dealing with somebody who is a law-abiding citizen and challenges things when they a
re wrong.

"I have a great respect for law and that is why I do what I do, because the law is not upheld by the government. I still don't consider I have committed any crime."

The sheriff said: "I have come to the position that I now have no alternative other than to deal with this case by custodial sentence and by compensation order. This was clearly premeditated. There is no remorse displayed by either of you."

Edinburgh City Council's environment leader Robert Aldridge said: "Cleaning up graffiti in Edinburgh costs us more than £80,000 each year. We will not tolerate anyone, however laudable their motives, defacing public buildings."

Scots Tory justice spokesman Bill Aitken said: "It is depressing that these elderly women think they can go around causing damage of £3,600 in support of their own beliefs. They should be mature enough to know how to get their message across."
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