THREE peace campaigners have been found guilty of committing a breach of the peace by blocking the main road to the Coulport armaments depot as part of an anti-Trident demonstration this summer.

But the trio all walked free from court after a justice of the peace admonished them for the offence - the legal equivalent of a slap on the wrists.

Brian Quail, Angie Zelter and Sam Donaldson, all members of the Trident Ploughshares protest group, denied a charge that they committed a breach of the peace on the Northern Access Road, near its junction with Peaton Road, on Tuesday, July 11.

Prosecutors alleged that the group conducted themselves in a disorderly manner, formed a group, attached themselves together using locking devices, formed a blockade across the road preventing the flow of traffic, refused to desist when requested by police, and obstructed police officers trying to move them by making their bodies go limp.

After a trial at Dumbarton JP Court on Thursday, October 12, Quail, 79, of Hyndland Road in Glasgow, 66-year-old Zelter, of Knighton in Powys, and Donaldson, 29, of Cottingham in East Yorkshire, were found guilty of the charge by Alison Symon JP.

During the trial Inspector David Quinn, the senior Police Scotland officer on the ground at the location of the protest, said that when he arrived at the scene he saw five people, including the three accused, lying on the roadway attached to each other by lock-on devices.

Inspector Quinn said he had attempted to engage with the blockaders through a five-stage appeal, but at no point did they get up of their own volition and leave the road.

Asked by fiscal depute Scott Simpson if he would have arrested the protesters had they left the road themselves, he said: “Absolutely not."

Under cross-examination Inspector Quinn told Quail that at no time had he been fearful or alarmed, or even annoyed or distressed, by his presence on the road.

Inspector Quinn said: “I didn't feel fear or alarm but that's not to say your actions didn't cause inconvenience to the public.”

Inspector Quinn told Zelter there was “no disorder” during the protest, which ended when Ministry of Defence Police officers moved in to cut the devices linking the group together.

The protesters were then arrested and taken to a police vehicle.

He said: “There was nobody being abusive towards police. There was fairly civilised interaction between the police and yourselves.”

Inspector Quinn also said he understood why the campaigners held their particular views on nuclear weapons.

Zelter told the court: “After the cutting team cut me out of my lock-on I got up and walked calmly to the police vehicle. I did not resist arrest in any way.

“The whole protest was calm, respectful and yet was a powerful statement against the UK's nuclear weapons system.”

Speaking after the trial, David Mackenzie of Trident Ploughshares said: David Mackenzie of Trident Ploughshares said: “Those present in the court today felt that JP Symon gave the protesters a fair and respectful hearing but saw herself as having no option but to take account of the current legal tests for establishing a charge of breach of the peace.

“At the same time that charge is utterly absurd, given the completely peaceful actions of the protesters on the one hand and the palpable criminality of the UK's weapons of mass destruction on the other.”

The blockade took place during an eight-day peace camp at Peaton Wood, close to the entrance to the Coulport base.

The camp began shortly after agreement was reached at the United Nations over a global nuclear weapons ban treaty, though the world's nuclear powers, including the UK and the United States, did not attend the New York talks.

Quail and Zelter were remanded in custody for two weeks on July 12 after their first court appearance in connection with the incident after they refused to agree to a special bail condition barring them from approaching the Coulport base.

The pair were released two weeks later after the Crown dropped its request for the special condition.