Tuesday 16 October 2001 For Immediate release PRESS RELEASE Judgment makes prosecution for pulling up GM crops harder This morning, Tuesday 16 October, in the High Court at the Royal Courts of Justice, London, anti GM  campaigner Rowan Tilly won her appeal.  Justice Lady Ann Raftery decided the conviction of Aggravated Trespass was not an appropriate charge for someone who pulled up genetically modified (GM) crops. Tilly’s  conviction (and two others) who pulled up the crops may now be quashed. Following the judgement, six other campaigners from SURGE [1] no longer expect to be retried for Aggrevated Trespass. Eleven other people arrested for pulling up GM crops may never be charged [2]. The judgement by Lady Justice Ann Raftery followed a half day hearing on Monday October 15th. It clarifies the conditions under which the charge is likely to succeed. The Criminal Justice and Public Order act 1994 introduced the offence of Aggrevated Tresspass (section 68) which occurs when a person interferes with lawful activity on private land.  The Judgement means that a person must be on the land engaged in an activity, for example sowing seeds, tilling the land, harvesting, etc. to succeed. It is not sufficient that the land be farmed if no one is present, for the charge to succeed. This was the situation when Ms Tilly and two others: Jo Hamilton and Martin Shaw bagged up GM crops at a farm in Royston, Cambridgeshire in August 1999. They were convicted of Aggrevated Trespass at Cambridge Magistrates court in June 2000. Appellant Rowan Tilly said "The criminalisation of people who pull up GM crops will now be more difficult. Aggrevated Trespass is an ‘easy’ charge for gaining convictions without a jury in a magistrates court. The alternative charge  criminal damage allows a defence of public interest, and we’ve seen this defence used to aquit people before a jury in Norwich Crown Court." ENDS Contact: Media Liaison Andrew Wood 07973 953 446 / Page 07654 247 502 Editors Notes GenetiX snowball is a campaign of nonviolent civil responsibility set up in July 1998 to openly and accountably pull up GM crops throughout Britain. Browser http://www.gn.apc.org/pmhp/gs. [1] Seven people including Rowan Tilly were given an absolute discharge at Weymouth Magistrate’s Court on 12 June 2001. The District Judge decided they had ‘no case to answer’ for the charge of aggravated trespass as their was no activity (harvesting, weeding, surveying, etc) on the land at the time the GM crops were pulled up. The seven people were arrested for pulling up Aventis GM maze from a Farm Scale Trial at Over Compton, Dorset after a rally by SURGE (Southern United Resistance to Genetic Engineering), on 16 July 2000. The Public Prosecutor had appealed the Magistrate Court’s decision and their appeal was joined with Rowan Tilley’s at the High Court appeal on Monday 15th October. [2] A total of eleven people who were arrested at various GM demonstrations this summer including Rowan Tilly and Guardian Journalist George Monbiot are waiting to be told if they will be charged. The demonstrations in July of this year were at Lower Burnhan in Lincolnsjire, Preston Wynne in Herefordshire and Sealand, Flintshire in Wales.