PROTESTERS who stood trial after blocking access to an Amazon warehouse in Darlington, causing significant disruption, have been acquitted.

The 10 activists were accused of aggravated trespass at the global online retailer's Darlington site last November, and appeared at Teesside Magistrates Court on Monday after pleading not guilty at an earlier hearing.

The Northern Echo:

The protesters blocked two main entrance and exit points to the site by erecting bamboo structures, which some climbed up on, while others locked themselves to concrete blocks on the ground.

But inclement weather conditions blighted the protest and lead to police expressing concern over their safety due to high winds. The protest, on November 26 last year, was during Storm Arwen which brought widespread disruption to the region.

Protesters arrived at the site from around 6am and it wasn’t until after 9pm when the final activist was arrested in the snow.

The court heard evidence from the general manager of the Darlington Amazon site, Mallikarjun Erasu, Inspector Bridges, who attended the scene, and Crime Scene Investigator Horrocks who gave evidence in relation to maps used by Durham Constabularly while investigating the incident.

Recalling the scene, Mr Erasu said: “ I saw a few people on the ground, a few people hanging on the obstruction that was built. There was a sleeping bag tied to it and on the ground there were a couple of people standing there.

“No one could get in because of the blockage.”

The Northern Echo:

Footage from the scene played in court showed Mr Erasu reading a statement from Amazon to the protesters.

He said: “I told them Amazon was a private property and that they were trespassing. It was close to a thousand people that we had to cancel orders on. It meant workers couldn’t work”

But when cross-examined by the defence solicitors he said he could not remember if the structures were on Amazon land.

Inspector Dave Barker told the court how he repeatedly told the protesters “you are commuting an offence of aggravated trespassing” but they refused to move.

On one occasion, some protesters replied to justify their actions for the protest. They said: “how about the safety of all of us for these destructive industries that are destroying the planet?”

However, it was the defence’s case that there was no clear evidence to suggest that the activists had trespassed on the land owned by Amazon near to the site.

The defence said there was a ‘significant uncertainty in the facts’ presented by the prosecution and that the boundary line between the Amazon land and a public highway wasn’t accurate.

It’s essential to this case that the crown establish where the boundary is between the private land and the public highway and they have failed to do that.

The trial was listed for five days but district judge Marie Mallon acquitted all 10 defendants after saying she found the evidence unreliable.