Dorset Court Victory

On June 12th charges of aggravated trespass against seven people who invaded a 33-acre Aventis GM maize field were dropped after Weymouth magistrates found no case to answer. Key to this decision seems to have been the absence at the time of anyone to be ‘aggravated’ by their ‘trespassing’. About a third of the crop was destroyed when around 100 people invaded the site at Tolbridge Farm, near Sherborne, Dorset on July 16th last year. The lively demonstration, which involved people dressed as grim reapers and in white overalls, had been watched by police surveillance cameras.

After leaving court the seven held a press conference at the nearest GM site. With no police presence and the defendants looking on, locals expressed their solidarity by entering the field and starting to pull the crop.