>UNUSUAL GOINGS ON AT MAKESHIFT COURT
>
>A church kitchen was converted into a police cell on Monday during one of
>the most bizarre court hearings in Scottish legal history.
>The hall of St Micheal's Episopal Church in Helensburgh was the venue for a
>special sitting of the town's district court.
>The session was convened to deal with a group of people arrested over the
>weekend at an anti-nuclear protest near the naval base at Coulport.
>The court normally sits in the town's Victoria Halls, but because they are
>being refurbished  [actually an art exhibition], the nearby church was
>deployed - and the kitchen was the only room available for the police to
>hold the accused.
>Equally unorthodox were the scenes in the makeshift public gallery, sited
>on one half of the badmington court.
>Minutes before before proceeedings began just three seats were allocated to
>spectators - but when more than 50 supporters of the accused turned up,
>police launched a frantic search for more chairs.
>
>ONLOOKERS
>
>Officers found another pile elsewhere in the church - but not enough. And
>several onlookers were forced to sit on the wooden floor, some of them
>barefoot.
>Flouting all normal courtroom rules, punnets of strawberries and packets of
>crisps were passed freely round the audience as the hearing progressed -
>while several others sat cross-legged indulging in the art of origami.
>Among the six people who were sent for trial on a variety of charges
>including vandalism and breach of the peace, was a 30-year old Swedish
>priest and two countrymen.
>The reverend Hans Fredrick Ivarrson, along with Hans Joelson and Klaus
>Bognier, both 30, denied cutting the wire fence surrounding the base. They
>were released on bail and ordered to return for trial in March next year.
>
>DENIED
>
>Helen John of Yorkshire, Sylvia Boyce of Birmingham and Angie Zelter of
>Norfolk also denied a string of  public order offences and will be tried in
>January.
>Initially Boyce and Zelter were remanded in custody when they refused to
>accept a condition of bail that ordered them not to go within 25 metres of
>either Coulport or the submarine base at Faslane.
>After debate with fiscal Ann McAllister, however, magistrate Tony Stirling
>JP, withdrew the stipulation.
>He told the accused "By refusing to accept the condition I would have no
>alternative but to remand you in custody until your trial. The problem is
>that no date is available for another hearing within 40 days.
>When the nature of charges are taken into account, it would be iniquitous
>to keep you in custordy for that length of time - because it would be
>longer that the sentence I would have the power to impose should you have
>pleaded guilty."
>
>Note: The report doesn't include the presense of 9 year old Ben and 12 year
>old Sam in the court, or Helen John telling the court she was off to cut
>the fence - a completely surreal experience.