After six British pro-Palestinian activists were acquitted last week of aggravated burglary over a 2024 raid on Israeli defense firm Elbit’s factory, the Crown Prosecution Service said Saturday it will seek a retrial in the case, amid sharp criticism from lawmakers, police leaders and Jewish organizations.
The verdict cleared members of the now-banned group Palestine Action in an attack on Israeli defense company Elbit Systems’ UK factory in Filton, near Bristol. Prosecutors said the raid caused roughly £1 million ($1.4 million) in damage and left a police officer with a fractured spine after she was struck with a sledgehammer.
In announcing the move, the CPS said it was reviewing the legal basis for a retrial but did not specify which of the six defendants — known as the “Filton 6” — could face fresh proceedings.
“Prosecutors are now considering the precise basis on which that retrial would proceed, including the form of the indictment, in accordance with CPS legal guidance,” a CPS spokesperson said. The next hearing is scheduled for February 18.
The decision to seek a retrial followed a public backlash from British lawmakers and Jewish groups, charging that the verdict set a dangerous precedent.
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After the jury gave its rulings last Wednesday, Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp wrote to Director of Public Prosecutions Stephen Parkinson urging him to seek a retrial, warning the verdict “risks giving the green light to mob violence in pursuit of a political objective.”
Police leaders echoed those concerns. The Police Federation said it had “serious concerns” about officer safety, particularly after the jury failed to convict Samuel Corner of grievous bodily harm for allegedly striking a female officer with a sledgehammer as she knelt on the floor.
“UK policing is disappointed that the jury in this case could not reach verdicts in relation to an alleged serious assault against a police officer,” said Chief Constable Gavin Stephens, chair of the National Police Chiefs’ Council.
Jewish organizations also condemned the outcome. The Board of Deputies of British Jews said it was “concerned by the troubling verdicts acquitting members of Palestine Action,” warning against “perverse justifications being used as a shield for criminality.”
In an op-ed published in The Telegraph, former Jewish Chronicle editor Stephen Pollard charged that the acquittals “are telling British Jews they have no future here,” and said the decision may be “the single most significant case in the history of Anglo-Jewry since 1945.”
Police officers monitor protesters holding a banner during a protest in support of the anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian group Palestine Action, in Trafalgar Square, central London, on June 23, 2025. (Henry Nicholls / AFP)
At the trial, prosecutors said the six defendants were part of a larger group that used a white former prison van to ram the factory gates before smashing equipment inside. Prosecutor Deanna Heer told jurors the group intended “to cause serious property damage and to use or threaten unlawful violence against anyone who stood in their way, if necessary with the use of weapons.”
The defendants argued the attack was aimed at destroying weapons to halt what they described as Israel’s “genocide” in Gaza, following the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, massacre and Israel’s subsequent military campaign. They insisted they did not intend to harm people, despite police bodycam footage shown at trial depicting Corner striking an officer with a sledgehammer.
Illustrative — Activists from the Extinction Rebellion North and Palestine Action groups protest at the gates of the Elbit Ferranti factory in Waterhead, Oldham, in north-west England on February 1, 2021. (Paul ELLIS / AFP)
After more than 36 hours of deliberations, the jury was unable to reach a guilty verdict against any of the six defendants.
Charlotte Head, 29, Samuel Corner, 23, Leona Kamio, 30, Fatema Zainab Rajwani, 21, Zoe Rogers, 22, and Jordan Devlin, 31, were all acquitted of aggravated burglary.
Rajwani, Rogers and Devlin were found not guilty of violent disorder, while the jury did not reach a verdict on that charge against Head, Corner and Kamio.
The jury could also not reach a verdict on an additional charge of criminal damage.
Corner had denied causing grievous bodily harm with intent to hit a female police sergeant with a sledgehammer. He testified that he only swung the sledgehammer at the police officer to protect one of his friends. The jury was unable to agree on a verdict on that count.
Britain proscribed Palestine Action as a terrorist organization last July, almost a year after the Elbit incident took place, making it a crime to be a member. Judge Jeremy Johnson had told the jury the ban was irrelevant to the criminal trial and they must consider the case “on the evidence, not on the basis of what you or anyone else thinks about Palestine Action or the war in Gaza.”
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