Mira Hammad and Rosalind Burgin deliver closing speeches in jury trial over factory protest
4 March 2026
Garden Court North’s Mira Hammad and Rosalind Burgin represented two of the co-defendants at Newcastle Crown Court (pictured) during the eight-day jury trial. Credit: Duncan Andison / Shutterstock.
Garden Court North’s Mira Hammad and Rosalind Burgin delivered closing speeches to the jury at Newcastle Crown Court yesterday (3 March 2026) on behalf of co-defendants Summer Oxlade and Georgia Coote, who staged a protest at an Israeli-linked arms factory last February.
The jury returned guilty verdicts for Ms Oxlade, Ms Coote, and their co-defendant Hollie Mildenhall, who is represented by Nexus Chambers’ Ife Thompson. All three defendants are charged with inflicting criminal damage without lawful excuse.
During the eight-day trial, the court heard that the engineering company which runs the factory in Newcastle is owned by Rafael Advanced Defence Systems, an Israeli-state owned weapons company.
Cross-examining a company representative during the trial, Mira showed the company’s profile on Companies House, which declared it was “wholly owned” by Government State Authorities, State of Israel, under the country’s Ministry of Finance.
Mira put to the representative that the company had a £79m turnover in 2024 and earned approximately £39m in profit, much of which would go to the shareholders in the Israeli Government.
Closing speeches
In her closing speech on behalf of Ms Oxlade, Mira said she had wanted to “try and stop a genocide” in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). Mira said Ms Oxlade “saw the pain of somebody thousands of miles away who had nothing in common with her and felt moved to do something to put a stop to it”.
Mira referred to the evidence given by the defendants that the factory “sits in Newcastle” but “belongs to a government headed by a man who to this day has a warrant out for his arrest for war crimes and crimes against humanity”.
On behalf of Ms Coote, Rosalind said the jurors were “powerful” and could “not be punished” for their decision.
Rosalind explained Ms Coote’s evidence that her actions were motivated by seeing Israel’s “onslaught” and “carpet-bombing” of Gaza, witnessing “horrors upon horrors” on the news. She was “drawing the dots” between the “horrors happening there” and the companies in the “supply chain” in the UK, adding she was “acting in the belief” a factory “near her home” was making weapons for use by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF).
In September 2025, a report commissioned by the United Nations Independent international Commission of Inquiry on the OPT found that Israel had committed genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Two months later, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant for the arrest of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Mira and Rosalind were instructed to represent Ms Oxlade and Ms Coote by Nicola Hall of Robert Lizar Solicitors.
As part of Garden Court North’s protest rights team, Mira and Rosalind were both among counsel representing Palestine Action co-founder Huda Ammori in the recent High Court ruling that the group’s proscription was unlawful.
Additional media
BBC News – Gaza protesters found guilty of factory damage
BBC News – Protesters good citizens but unlawful, jury told
BBC News – Gaza protesters ’caused’ £6.8k factory damage
For further information, please contact Alex Blair, Communications Manager at Garden Court North Chambers: ablair@gcnchambers.co.uk
