Presteigne, Powys factory protestor convicted over damage

Ruth Hogg, along with three other people, caused £1.2 million worth of devastation to the Teledyne Labtech factory in Presteigne last year, Caernarfon Crown Court heard.

On Friday, Hogg was convicted of conspiracy to commit criminal damage for her role in the attack, her three co-accused having already admitted their parts in the offence.

Prosecution barrister Elen Owen said the actions of PhD student Hogg, 40, and her three accomplices were “sinister” as they sought to shut down the factory, which employs 64 workers.

The terrifying raid at the factory, which contained chemicals, risked “catastrophic” results for anyone in the vicinity, including nearby houses and a school.

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The prosecutor declared: ”This wasn’t a protest. It was a professionally planned attack on a soft target tantamount to a terrorist attack on people who didn’t deserve it.”

Those involved were “hellbent” on causing as much damage as they could. They were “tooled up” with a drill, crowbar, sledgehammer and angle-grinder and had balaclavas and smoke grenades, she said.

The factory produced circuit boards for various uses including life-saving MRI scanners, but the intruders claimed they also made circuit boards for Israeli drones - something workers didn’t know.

The factory in the aftermath of the attack. Pic: Vladimir Morozov.

Hogg, who’d been to Calais to support asylum-seekers, claimed she took part in direct action because she understood the site made component parts for weapons used against Palestinians.

The prosecutor said to the jury: ”They targeted a small factory in rural Wales with, at best, tenuous links to the arms companies because it would give them maximum publicity for minimum effort.

"You have no actual evidence, only what Ruth Hogg has told you.”

But James Manning, defending, claimed that workers had been in the dark about what was going on.

Hogg, of Stanley Road, Aberystwyth, who holds a Masters degree in fine art and worked at a gallery at the mid Wales town,  denied conspiring to damage property on December 9. A small group of supporters with Palestinian flags had shown their backing for her outside the court.

The jury took less than two hours to convict her.

Protestors smashing computers inside the factory. Pic: Vladimir Morozov.

Hogg agreed in evidence that she had drilled holes in the roof of Teledyne Labtech to allow rain inside and to try and stop work there.

Questioned by her barrister, Hogg also agreed she had smashed windows after confirming with the fire service that the building was empty. She had sprayed paint from a fire extinguisher through the broken windows.

Red paint was to symbolise the blood of innocent people who had been killed. She said the factory also looked like a bomb had hit it.

“It’s an interesting parallel,” she remarked.

Susan Bagshaw, 65, of Clawdd Helyg, Commins Coch, Morwenna Grey, 41, of Penrallt Street, Machynlleth, and Tristan Dixon, 34, of Huddersfield, have pleaded guilty to conspiracy to cause criminal damage

Judge Rhys Rowlands told Hogg she would be sentenced with her accomplices next month after being found guilty on “overwhelming” evidence. She is in custody.

He said “good” people on occasions do bad things. Livelihoods had been put at risk.

The judge told her: ”There have to be consequences.”

And while he acknowledged that her views were "sincerely held", Judge Rowlands added: ”The difficulty is the way you went about it was completely wrong, completely illegal, that day.”