CPS vows to continue GM actions
28 June 2001
CPS vows to continue GM actions
By Fwi staff
DESPITE losing high profile cases the Crown Prosecution Service insists proceedings will continue against people who damage genetically modified crops.
Prosecutors said they will consider each case of alleged damage on their merit, reports The Guardian.
This came after a district judge at Harwich magistrates court acquitted on a legal technicality 11 people accused of criminal damage.
The six men and five women had denied causing criminal damage to a GM forage maize crop at Wivenoe, Essex, on 20 July last year.
The group had been charged with damaging a GM crop. But while the Crown later accepted that no GM crop was damaged, no amended charge was put to the defendants.
Lord Melchett, former head of Greenpeace was one of 28 anti-GM protesters cleared at Norwich crown court last September.
And in June charges of aggravated trespass were dropped against protesters who damaged GM crops near Sherborne in Dorset.
National Farmers Union president Ben Gill said the Norwich verdict gave the green light to wanton vandalism and trespass”.
- Court throws out GM trashing case, FWi, 12 June 2001
- GM acquittal sets no precedent, FWi, 21 September 2000
Farm leaders fury at GM trial verdict, FWi, 20 September 2000
- The Guardian, 28 June 2001, page 3
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