Women guilty in spy base case

5:23pm Wednesday 10th October 2007

Two Keighley pensioners have become the first people to be convicted under new anti-terror legislation.

Helen John, 70, and Sylvia Boyes, 64, were found guilty of trespassing at the US spy base at Menwith Hill, North Yorkshire, on April 1 last year - the day the Act came into force.

John and Boyes were each conditionally discharged for three months by District Judge Martin Walker who ordered that each pay £50 in costs when they appeared at Harrogate Magistrates yesterday.

Both women immediately lodged an appeal to the Crown Court, John claiming that the new Act was "bad law".

The conviction under the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act came seven months after they made their first court appearances.

There were three adjournments for the judge to receive more information.

Judge Walker, who described the prosecution as a "test case", said the women had "highly principled and passionate beliefs but they were subject to the law of the land".

He told them the Secretary of State had acted in good faith when the site, between Skipton and Harrogate, was designated under the Act and the law was not bad law.

John told the court that she and Boyes had decided to enter Menwith Hill to challenge the new law on the grounds that it was an American spy base and as such did not come under British law. They were seen to duck around the entrance barrier wearing sandwich boards declaring: "This land is not yours to put boundaries round", "Close US bases everywhere" and "Say no to Star Wars".

John, of Wren Street, Keighley, described the site as an American spy base and said its function was to contribute to the American missile defence system. It had nothing to do with protecting the UK, she claimed.

She said: "When we broke the law we were challenging not just the activities at Menwith Hill but those at all other similar bases."

She claimed that Menwith Hill should not have been designated within the Act because it was acting predominantly in the interest of the US. "It is not an RAF base. There is an American commander in charge," she said.

Boyes, of Wimborne Drive, Keighley, who defended herself in court, said the legislation had been used as a "sledgehammer to crack a nut" in bringing the prosecution against her.

She told the court: "Walking on to the base demonstrated my state of mind in relation to the issue of weapons of mass destruction. I realise walking on there now seems a pathetic thing to do in the present situation worldwide, but we were not threatening anyone."

Chloe Fairley, for John, said her client was convinced there was no evidence to show designating Menwith Hill was in the interests of national security.

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