Christian Faces Jail Over Nuclear Protest

A Scottish Christian faces imprisonment, after refusing to pay a fine for blockading a nuclear weapons base.

Barbara Dowling told Dumbarton District Court that she is prepared to go to prison, instead of accepting that her protests outside Faslane naval base were wrong.

She said that she would not pay a fine or comply with a Supervised Attendance Order, as she doesn’t accept that she is guilty of any crime.

Dowling, who is a member of ‘Trident Ploughshares’ a Christian group which takes direct action against military bases, was summoned to court after failing to pay a £500 fine imposed after she took part in an illegal blockade of the Faslane Trident Submarine Base.

But she claims that the work at Faslane is illegal, and that protestors have a civic responsibility to do what they can to stop it.

At the court Dowling was given a sentence of 90 hours of Supervised Attendance, but the veteran peace campaigner said that she would not comply with it.

She was told that if she does not co-operate she will be brought back to court, at which point a custodial sentence could be imposed.

Dowling is also due to appear at Glasgow Sheriff Court today, accused of not filling in her census form properly. The 2011 census was boycotted by a number of Scots after CACI Ltd, a UK subsidiary of a company that has been involved in interrogating prisoners at Abu Ghraib Prison, was contracted to carry out work on it. Refusing to answer census questions is a criminal offence.