From Tuesday to Thursday this week two activists were in Brighton Magistrates on charges of aggravated trespass dating way back to April 2011. The two had foolishly/heroically (delete as applicable) glued and d-locked themselves to the gates of EDO MBM in the early hours in an effort to 'raise awareness' of the companies multitude of sins – including exporting arms to Israel and the supply of components for the use of banned cluster munitions.

According to the police this action also had the unintended side-effect of preventing workers from accessing the factory. While the defendants have sought to disprove this, the bulk of their defence has revolved around the fact that if any activity was disrupted, that activity was itself unlawful. As a result of this approach Paul Hills (Managing Director of EDO) was forced to spend an entire day on the stand being grilled about his company.

On the third day the defendants themselves took the stand, successfully countering the majority of Mr Hills' military-industrial obfuscations. There is now a frustrating gap of three weeks before closing speeches and the all important verdict.

Watch this space or check smashedo.org.uk for more