Student admits £1.2m ‘terrorist’ attack on British factory she claimed was making weapon parts

A PhD student has been convicted of plotting a ‘terrorist-like’ attack that caused £1.2million worth of damage to a Welsh factory she claimed was manufacturing weapons. 

Artist and Palestine Action activist Ruth Hogg was found guilty yesterday of conspiracy to commit criminal damage following the incident on December 9 last year. 

The 40-year-old, from Aberystwyth, was part of a group that believed the Teledyne Labtech at Presteigne, Powys, made circuit boards for Israeli drones.

Along with three others, she took part in a ‘professionally planned attack on a soft target tantamount to a terrorist attack’, the court heard.

Barrister Elen Owen, for the prosecution, told Caernarfon Crown Court that the group’s actions were ‘sinister’ as they sought to shut down the factory at Presteigne in Powys, which employs 64 workers. 

Pictured is one of the activists causing significant damage to Teledyne Labtech at Presteigne in  Powys, Wales

The activists, who were wearing balaclavas, were allegedly ‘hellbent’ on causing as much damage as they could and were ‘tooled up’ with a drill, crowbar, sledgehammer, angle-grinder and smoke grenades.

The factory produced circuit boards for various uses including MRI scanners but the intruders claimed they took action because it also made circuit boards for Israeli drones – unbeknownst to staff working there, according to Hog’s defense lawyer James Manning.

Ms Owen told the court: ‘This wasn’t a protest. It was a professionally planned attack on a soft target tantamount to a terrorist attack on people who didn’t deserve it.

‘They targeted a small factory in rural Wales with, at best, tenuous links to the arms companies because it would give them maximum publicity for minimum effort. You have no actual evidence, only what Ruth Hogg has told you.’

Hogg, of Stanley Road, Aberystwyth, who holds a Masters degree in fine art and worked at a gallery at the mid Wales town, previously denied conspiring to damage property on December 9. 

But in court yesterday she agreed in evidence that she had drilled holes in the roof of Teledyne Labtech to allow rain inside and try and stop work there.

Questioned by her barrister, Hogg also agreed she had smashed windows after confirming with the fire service that the building was empty and sprayed paint from a fire extinguisher through the broken windows.

The group members broke into the factory with a number of tools, including a sledgehammer

The activists sprayed red paint all over the factory to symbolise the blood of innocent victims

The red paint sprayed was to symbolise the blood of innocent people who had been killed in the Israel and Palestine conflict. 

She said the factory also looked like a bomb had hit it. ‘It’s an interesting parallel,’ she remarked.

Susan Bagshaw, 65, of Clawdd Helyg, Commins Coch, Morwenna Grey, 41, of Penrallt Street, Machynlleth, and Tristan Dixon, 34, of Huddersfield, have pleaded guilty to conspiracy to cause criminal damage.

Judge Rhys Rowlands told Hogg she would be sentenced with her accomplices next month after being found guilty on ‘overwhelming’ evidence. She remains in custody.

He said ‘good’ people on occasions do bad things but livelihoods had been put at risk and added: ‘There have to be consequences’. 

Despite her strong beliefs, he said: ‘The difficulty is the way you went about it was completely wrong, completely illegal, that day.’