Pictured: Activists charged over Palestine Action's break-in at RAF base
Daniel Jeronymides-Norie, 36, and Lewie Chiaramello, 22, are accused of spraying red paint onto two Voyager aircraft at the military base in Oxfordshire on June 20, alongside Amy Gardiner-Gibson, 29, and Jony Cink, 24.
They appeared in court accused of causing £7 million-worth of damage to two aircraft at RAF Brize Norton.
Counter Terrorism Policing South East (CTPSE) said they had been charged with conspiracy to enter a prohibited place knowingly for a purpose prejudicial to the safety or interests of the United Kingdom, and conspiracy to commit criminal damage.
The CPS alleges the offences are 'connected to terrorism' and all four appeared for a brief hearing at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Thursday. Daniel Jeronymides-Norie, 36, and Lewie Chiaramello, 22, were pictured ahead of proceedings in a custody van.
A video posted by the group showed two people riding electric scooters across the base's runway.
One person can be seen approaching an aircraft and spray-painting its engine, before driving away. The pair then left the scene.
Before the hearing began Palestine Action posted on social media calling for its supporters to 'mobilise' and around a dozen flag waving demonstrators appeared in solidarity outside the court.
Inside the court building, relatives of the defendants hugged each other and wiped away tears.
The public gallery was packed with around two dozen keffiyeh-wearing supporters.
As the defendants appeared in the dock they clapped and waved to the supporters who cheered and shouted.
Shouts of 'free Palestine' at court
Judge Daniel Sternberg told the four defendants, who were remanded in custody, that they will next appear at the Old Bailey on 18 July.
As they left the court, there were loud shouts of 'We love you Daniel' and 'Free Palestine'.
Mr Jeronymides-Norie is a pro-Palestinian artist. He previously ran two now-dissolved art businesses in Barnet, North London.
He is understood to have lived with his father in a £1.3m Edwardian townhouse in Barnet, north London.
Surrounded by multi-million pound homes in a leafy residential street, the property now appears to be empty with a boarded-up front door and overgrown garden.
Neighbours said that police raided the house last Thursday with three territorial support units and a helicopter.
Ms Gardiner-Gibson is a former director of an eco-friendly farming co-operative from which she resigned last Friday.
She was director of The Peasant Evolution Producers Cooperative between Feb 19 2025 and June 27 2025.
The Peasant Evolution Producers Cooperative is an organic farming group of smallholders in Dorset, Somerset and Devon. A listing of the group on Co-Operatives UK says: 'We believe that being a peasant is a way to the future.
'We promote organic farming and sustainable land management, fairtrade, rural crafts and handmade, healthy local food'.
Ms Gardiner-Gibson's family live in a large, three storey, five bedroom property in a quiet residential street in Haringey, North London.
When approached by the Telegraph, Ms Gardiner-Gibson's mother declined to comment.
If convicted, the four defendants face up to 14 years in prison.
Palestine Action faces proscription
Legislation in favour of proscribing Palestine Action passed in the Commons on Wednesday.
The motion is expected to be debated and voted on by the House of Lords on Thursday before it becomes law.
The group, which has called its proscription unjustified and an 'abuse of power,' has challenged the decision in court and an urgent hearing is expected at the High Court on Friday.
Dan Jarvis, the security minister, told MPs the attack at RAF Brize Norton 'was just the latest episode in Palestine Action's long history of harmful activity'.
He added: 'Palestine Action has orchestrated a nationwide campaign of property damage featuring attacks that have resulted in serious damage to property and crossed the threshold from direct criminal action into terrorism.'
The minister faced backlash from some MPs who described the move as a 'draconian overreach' and likened the group to the Suffragettes.
Zarah Sultana, the independent MP for Coventry South, said: 'To equate a spray can of paint with a suicide bomb isn't just absurd, it is grotesque.
'It is a deliberate distortion of the law to chill dissent, criminalise solidarity and suppress the truth.'
CTPSE said a 41-year-old woman arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender in connection with the Brize Norton attack had been released on bail until September 19.
A 23-year-old man was also released without charge.
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Western Telegraph
23 minutes ago
- Western Telegraph
Home Office welcomes Palestine Action ban as it comes into force
The designation as a terror group means that membership of or support for Palestine Action is a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison. The group lost a late-night Court of Appeal challenge on Friday evening, which sought to stop it being banned, less than two hours before the move came into force at midnight. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced the plans in June (Stefan Rousseau/PA) A Home Office spokesperson said on Saturday: 'We welcome the Court's decision and Palestine Action are now a proscribed group. 'The Government will always take the strongest possible action to protect our national security and our priority remains maintaining the safety and security of our citizens.' The move to ban the organisation was announced after two Voyager aircraft were damaged at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire on June 20, an incident claimed by Palestine Action, which police said caused around £7 million of damage. A group has said it is set to gather in Parliament Square on Saturday holding signs supporting Palestine Action, according to campaign group Defend Our Juries. A letter for the attention of @metpoliceuk and Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley: 'We would like to alert you to the fact we may be committing offences under the Terrorism Act tomorrow, Saturday 5 July, in Parliament Square at about 1pm.' Full letter: — Defend our Juries (@DefendourJuries) July 4, 2025 In a letter to the Home Secretary, protesters said: 'We do not wish to go to prison or to be branded with a terrorism conviction. But we refuse to be cowed into silence by your order.' Home Secretary Yvette Cooper announced plans to proscribe Palestine Action on June 23, stating that the vandalism of the two planes was 'disgraceful' and that the group had a 'long history of unacceptable criminal damage'. MPs in the Commons voted 385 to 26, majority 359, in favour of proscribing the group on Wednesday, before the House of Lords backed the move without a vote on Thursday. Four people – Amy Gardiner-Gibson, 29, Jony Cink, 24, Daniel Jeronymides-Norie, 36, and Lewis Chiaramello, 22 – have all been charged in connection with the incident at Brize Norton. They appeared at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Thursday after being charged with conspiracy to enter a prohibited place knowingly for a purpose prejudicial to the safety or interests of the United Kingdom, and conspiracy to commit criminal damage, under the Criminal Law Act 1977.
Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
I almost died in the London bombings. I looked down and saw that half my body was gone
On the morning of the July 7 bombings in 2005, marketing manager Martine Wright was working her way from Harringay, north London, to her office at St Katherine Docks near the Tower of London. It was later than usual – the previous night she had been out celebrating with her work colleagues following the news that London had won its bid to host the 2012 Olympics, and she'd overslept. There was a signal failure on the Northern Line, and the 52-year-old had what she now describes as her 'sliding doors moment'. 'I thought, 'Am I going to get off, go above ground and get the bus to Tower Hill, or shall I stay on the Tube?' I decided to stay on, and so one of my last memories was running up the escalator at Moorgate, turning right at the top and seeing the Circle Line train in the platform, running towards it and thinking, 'What a result.'' As she was rushing, she didn't get on her usual carriage, but her favourite seat was free – one in the corner. She picked up a paper, filled with jubilant articles about the Olympics, and pondered buying tickets for the opening ceremony. Then the bomb went off. 'I don't remember a noise, or a big bang. What I do remember is a flash of light, and it was a light that was all-consuming for a second. I remember thinking, 'What the hell is going on?'' Shehzad Tanweer, a 22-year-old Muslim extremist from the Leeds suburb of Beeston, had detonated a bomb hidden in a rucksack, as part of a coordinated attack on London that killed 52 people and injured hundreds more. Disorientated, Martine found herself surrounded by mangled metal and debris from the blast. She was yet to realise she had lost both her legs. 'I just remember, in the beginning, trying to get up, and I thought, 'Why can't I get up?'' Next to her were two survivors: Andrew Brown, electrocuted by live wires, and Kira Mason, with a severed arm. Seven passengers in the carriage had died, along with Tanweer. 'The screams were awful. I can't really describe what they were really like, and then people started to come past. It must have been the station master. He was talking to me through this hole. 'I had no concept of time. I just have memories; this gentleman talking to me, saying, 'It's OK, it's OK'. Everyone's just shouting, 'Help! Help!' 'I remember trying to pull myself out, and then seeing this figure coming up. This was my guardian angel, Liz Kenworthy. I could see Liz, long blonde hair and blue eyes, coming towards me.' Kenworthy was an off-duty police officer, and immediately got to work tending to both Andrew and Martine, gathering anything to use as a tourniquet to stem the bleeding. 'I remember one tourniquet was a belt,' recalls Martine, 'and I remember pulling this belt and thinking I felt like [a character] out of a John Wayne Western, like I used to watch with my dad on Sunday afternoon. And all I kept saying to Liz was, 'Please tell my mum and dad I'm OK.' The irony was that I wasn't OK.' Slowly, the walking wounded were evacuated through the tunnels, leaving only the most severely injured behind. Martine had to be cut out of the twisted metal, although she has no recollection of this. Having lost 80 per cent of her blood, Martine spent over a week in a coma and it took almost two days of anguish before her parents finally found her, having spent the days ringing round the city's hospitals. 'I just remember waking up in [the] Royal London [hospital] eight days later. James, my intensive care nurse, saw that I'd woken up a bit, and had to tell me that I'd lost my legs. I looked down and, you know, I saw half my body gone.' Heavily drugged, Martine went back to sleep, but the next morning reality hit her. 'I thought I was going to die. I wrote a letter, got the nurse to get me paper, but I couldn't write. I asked to have my ashes scattered on Haad Yao Beach, Koh Phangan – my favourite place in Thailand.' Martine spent 366 days in hospital, firstly at the Royal London and then at Queen Mary's Hospital, Roehampton, in a rehabilitation centre for amputees. Out of all those who survived the bombings – passengers on two other Tube trains and a double-decker bus in Tavistock Square – Martine was the worst injured, and at first felt bitter and resentful. 'I went down to the physio, and met about five or six of the other victims. I looked around that room and I thought, 'Oh, you've got one arm missing, you've got one leg missing, you've got one foot missing. I've lost two legs [above the knee]… Why?' And then I found out that 52 people had died. I had no idea that so many people had died that day.' Martine began talking to the other survivors, who make up what is now known as the 7/7 Club. 'That is a club that you would never choose to belong to, but a club where all you've got to do is walk into a room and see that person's eyes and you've got this deep understanding of each other.' And gradually, amid the trauma of what had happened, Martine discovered a new purpose. 'I suddenly found myself holding hands with people and looking into their eyes, and I felt like I had a role to play, to say, 'It's going to be OK'. And I think now, looking back, that was really important for me in my healing process, thinking, 'I can help people, I'm not useless', reminding people that we were actually the lucky ones.' Martine campaigned for better compensation for the 7/7 victims and, in 2009, discovered wheelchair volleyball. With the help of her physiotherapist, Maggie Uden, she began her journey to compete in the 2012 Paralympics. She was awarded an MBE in 2016 for services to sport, including her work as a role model for amputee athletes, and she also mentors amputees at the Royal London. 'I diverted my anger towards the Government. I met families of those 52 people, they were offered £8,000 each. Bloody ridiculous. I remember meeting Tony Blair and Gordon Brown at the first memorial at St Paul's Cathedral. Tony Blair could not look me in the eye. I thought it's because he couldn't relate to us. But Gordon Brown and Sarah Brown were fantastic. 'I still don't understand why I wasn't really angry towards the bombers. [Mohammad Sidique Khan, 30, Hasib Hussain, 18, Germaine Lindsay, 19, and Tanweer, all died in the attack.] I couldn't get away from the fact they had left their family and left their babies, their children, their wives – they'd been influenced by someone else. [Martine herself has a son, now aged 15.] 'Not a day goes by when I don't think I'm lucky. You know, [Tanweer] was 4ft away from me. I should not be here. And I'm here not just because of me, I'm here because of the love and support I've had. 'Twenty years on, this is normal. This is my life. Maybe five, 10 years on it wasn't normal, but I'm very reflective now. I feel like I could not have done anything in my life to stop what happened, and that actually my life is more enriched, it's better, than it was before. My legs might be shorter, but that's it.' 'I knew it was bad, but I figured she had a chance': the rescuer's story Liz Kenworthy, an officer with the Met Police, was off duty on July 7 2005, heading into London for a conference. Having missed the first train from Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, so she could have a chat with her daughter, Emily, on the platform, Liz arrived at London Liverpool Street station later than planned and then headed to the Circle Line. 'I jumped on the Tube, with my rucksack on my back, my Daily Telegraph under my arm, because it was full of pictures of the excitement of the previous day, and the train pulled out, heading towards Aldgate,' she remembers. 'Very shortly afterwards, there was a sudden crunch; the train came to an abrupt halt.' The lights flickered on and off, and then there was a call on the intercom for anyone medically trained. Thinking that perhaps there had been a collision, Liz made her way through the carriages towards the front of the train. 'The next carriage was very different. There was darkness, there was newspaper blowing around. People injured and covered in dirt started coming towards me.' Reasoning that these were the walking wounded and that there were likely to be more seriously injured passengers further on, she carried on walking through the carriages. Finally, she reached the carriage where the bomb had detonated. 'The cables were coming out of the roof like spaghetti, the train had been disembowelled – the floor was ripped up, and there were bodies. I saw a human back underneath, down below my feet, and a big sheet of metal, which I had to stand on. The body down in the hole was [beyond saving], so I just had to ignore it.' Liz's police training had impressed on her that if there were more than three casualties, her job was to stand back, assess the situation and call for help. Liz sent a text to a colleague: 'Accident Aldgate, I'm OK', but the text didn't send, so Liz crawled into the carriage, finding Martine and Andrew. 'I saw a lady on the right with her feet up. I thought, 'Why is she sitting like that with her feet up on the seat?' Then I realised that it was her shoes up on the sill, not her feet. It was an incredibly confusing scene. 'I didn't compute what had happened initially. Then I realised she was badly hurt, but conscious. The man next to her had lost one of his legs, but he was conscious as well and then, to their left, there was a woman on her back in the debris trapped by her arm, and she was shouting and shouting. 'One of the rules we're taught is: the more people shout, the less help they probably need; if they've got the energy to shout, then let them get on with it. 'So I thought, 'I'll stick with the lady who's lost her feet, and I'll stick with the man, and the lady who's shouting. I'll deal with them.'' Liz worked to stem the bleeding from Andrew Brown's leg, and sent a volunteer with her warrant card to find T-shirts, belts and ties to use as tourniquets. She did her best to comfort and tend to the injured, and could see that Martine was in a critical condition. 'It was bad, but I knew that people from the First World War had their legs blown off in trenches and survived. Obviously, I couldn't tell if she had anything internal, but she was still talking and conscious. I figured she stood a chance.' Some time later, Liz was joined by Sgt Neal Kemp of the City of London Police. Sgt Kemp's arrival took the pressure off Liz, who was exhausted by this point. 'I had probably done about as much as I could. I was starting to flag. I said to Sgt Kemp: 'This is Andy, this is Martine. Remember their names. They're going to live. They're going to be alright, we're going to make sure they get out safely…'' Then approximately 45 minutes after the bombing, the fire brigade arrived. Liz made her way through the tunnel to the surface to see people being treated on the streets. Liz wrote down as much as she could remember while it was still fresh in her mind, and drew a map of the scene on the train. Later, her sergeant came with colleagues and took her statement. 'I gave them the original notes, and I said, 'I can't write anything else.' For a person who loves words, I've never, ever been able to write it down. I can talk to you about it. But I can't write it down.' Understandably, life didn't get back to 'normal' for Liz, as it didn't for so many survivors. 'Once I knew what [the blast] was, I was extremely angry – the idea that someone would do that to people they didn't know, and hurt people that were completely innocent, minding their own business, travelling on a train.' Liz saw someone in occupational health, and talking about it helped a great deal. 'I needed to talk about it and come to terms with not being able to do more, and wishing I could have stopped it. But, I did what I could in the circumstances, and I can't beat myself up over what I did or didn't do, because it's done.' For the remaining years of her service, Liz carried a first aid kit and torch in her backpack during her commute, 'in case it happened again'. She received and MBE for bravery and retired on the 11th anniversary of the attacks, in 2016. Unlike Martine, whom Liz is still in contact with, there is no forgiveness or understanding. There's a deep anger towards the terrorists, and Liz is incredibly blunt in her condemnation. 'They're beneath contempt. They're evil people. I don't care what their cause is. 'They've wasted their own lives. They've caused a lot of hurt and misery, and what have they achieved? Absolutely nothing. You want to blow yourself up. You really want to end up as a carcass in the bottom of a train? You're not a hero. You're just a dead lump of meat with me stepping on you. Me in my shoes, stepping on you. That's how I feel about that.'
Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
Should we be concerned about multiple tiers of British justice?
Stories about 'two-tier' policing and justice have become a frequent feature in the news. Just this week, there's been yet another 'two-tier' policing row over a pro-Palestine protestor dressed as a holocaust concentration camp inmate and Lord Hermer, the Attorney General, no less, has said allegations of 'two-tier' justice are 'disgusting '. Then there's the ongoing reports about Lucy Connolly. She was sentenced to 31 months in prison for an ill-judged post on X about asylum seekers (which she later deleted). The appeal to reduce her sentence failed, but when serious offences receive lesser sentencing, there are legitimate grounds for concern. Everyone must be treated equally before the law, but public perception as to whether this remains the case is being harmed and presents a crisis of trust in our institutions. So, is the Attorney General wrong to express his criticism of those speaking up on the status quo? My new report for Civitas delves into examples of 'two-tier' policing and justice. My findings indicate public perception around police impartiality and justice have indeed been eroded over the decades. None of this should be taken lightly, given impartiality is central to the police's commitment to discharge their duties, 'without fear or favour' – but there are examples of where policing might be viewed as operating, 'with fear and favour'. Are some groups, like the white working class, treated differently to others? Are they treated equally to Black Lives Matter (who Starmer took the knee for, whilst in opposition), climate protestors or Muslim counter protestors following the Southport tragedy? Last summer's disorder was a focal point, but racial and religious sensitivities have long impacted justice for grooming gang survivors. A hierarchical hate crime policy for Britain's faith groups, plus allegations of two-tier policing since October 7, give rise to further questions about impartiality. The existing policing approach reflects that rather than operating on a colour-blind or community-blind basis, the attempt was made by police to compensate for the allegation stemming from the Macpherson inquiry of 'institutional racism' – by policing different communities in different ways. Although this is well intentioned, it is not without consequence. The Government have pushed back on this framing. In fact in April, the Home Affairs Committee Inquiry into the 2024 riots referred to 'unsubstantiated and disgraceful claims of 'two-tier policing''. The state's decisive action to quell disorder, post Southport against so-called 'far-Right thugs' (a narrative later proven to be false) was of course necessary, but it contrasts with the approach to the Roma riots in Harehills (Leeds) where at one point, the police retreated after becoming the target of the mob themselves, or disorder by predominantly Muslim counter-protestors in Bordesley Green (Birmingham) where journalists were targeted and a white man attacked outside a pub. Remarkably, Leeds City Council issued a joint statement (a day after Harehills) praising the Romanian/Roma community contribution to, 'the diversity and richness of the Harehills'. Meanwhile, despite the serious public disorder in Birmingham, reports indicated 'a lack of police presence'. West Midlands Police consulted 'community leaders' prior to the disorder, and Harehills was largely viewed as a community issue. The 'community leader' gatekeeper concept, when applied to some groups, but not others, introduces an element of police bias. Worst still, the Home Office X account referred to the post-Southport protestors as 'criminals' even before they had been tried in court, removing the legal principle of presumption of innocence. Justice for them was indeed swift – the disorder broke out on 30 July, with the first prison sentences announced a week later. Meanwhile, a suspended Labour councillor who pleaded not guilty to encouraging violent disorder last summer is going to trial in August 2025 – a year on. But allegations of impartial policing or policy aren't restricted to how the state deals with public order. Take the recording of hate crime, or Orwellian non-crime-hate-incidents (NCHIs) for religion. Islamophobia and anti-Semitism are prioritised. The Government's secretive 'Islamophobia' working group, tasked with putting together a new definition should really pause until completion of the national grooming gang inquiry. That's because allegations of so-called 'Islamophobia' could stifle open discussion. But why does the Government not also define anti-Christian, anti-Hindu and anti-Sikh hatred, whilst they're at it? Or better still – treat them all on one equal footing? After the targeting of a mosque in Southport last summer, the Government announced additional 'emergency' security funding for mosques to build on the existing £29 million fund in place last year, allocated to the standalone Protective Security for Mosques Scheme. But no 'emergency' funding announcement came forth when a Hindu temple in Leicester (and one in Birmingham) was targeted during the Hindu-Muslim disorder back in 2022. Standalone funding schemes dedicated to protecting places of worship exist for some religious groups, but not others. Although the Government will continue to dismiss claims of 'two-tier' justice, in April it was forced to introduce emergency legislation to kibosh guidelines specifying preferential treatment for 'minority' communities to, 'prevent potential differential treatment arising from the Sentencing Council guidelines and avoid any unintended discrimination'. As I discovered, there are many examples of where identity politics and progressivist causes have trumped impartial policing. It is time to reinstate equality before the law for all citizens, regardless of their politics, religion or identity grouping.
