Greenpeace activists face new trial over attack on GM crops

The Greenpeace director Lord Melchett and 27 of the group's activists are to be retried in the GM crop-wrecking case over which a jury could not agree, the Crown Prosecution Service said yesterday.

The Greenpeace defendants were tried at Norwich Crown Court last month on charges of criminal damage and theft after a raid last July on a farm at Lyng, Norfolk to cut down genetically modified maize.

After a 12-day trial the jury of six men and six women cleared all 28 of the theft charge, but failed to reach a verdict on criminal damage. Lord Melchett and his activists admitted using a motor mower to attack the six-acre field, part of the Government's programme of farm trials of GM crops.

But they claimed the defence of "lawful excuse" under the Criminal Damage Act, 1971, which allows someone to damage property to prevent damage to other property.

They told the court the maize they attacked, genetically engineered to be tolerant of a powerful weedkiller, was about to come into flower, and its pollen could have "genetically polluted" other crops, which they wished to protect.

The Crown Prosecution Service said it would ask for an early trial date. The case is again likely to be heard at Norwich Crown Court, but if a jury once more fails to agree, it is unlikely to go to a third trial.

"I welcome the opportunity to argue once again, and convince a second jury that what we did was the right thing to do and was justified," Lord Melchett, 52, said last night.