RAF MILDENHALL — A 68-year-old English peace activist will face multiple charges in a Suffolk courtroom in connection with an alleged attempt to break onto RAF Lakenheath to cause property damage, authorities said.
Helen John, who has a lengthy arrest record for civil disobedience outside of RAF Menwith Hill, was initially arrested by officers from the Ministry of Defence Police Department while walking on Lord’s Walk — a restricted area of RAF Lakenheath.
After being booked and released from the Mildenhall Police Station, John returned to RAF Lakenheath, according to the MOD police. This time, however, she was armed with a claw hammer and told 48th Security Forces members who apprehended her that she intended to cause damage to property on the base, the MOD said.
She faces one count of breaking a temporary traffic order and one count of intent to destroy or damage property, according to the Bury St. Edmunds Magistrate Court. She is due in court Aug. 10.
John is the vice president of the British Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and a longtime protester who has served time in prison for her role in civil disobedience outside of RAF Menwith Hill, the top-secret intelligence station managed by the Air Force and home to a National Security Agency outpost.
She was arrested alongside a fellow grandmother in June outside of RAF Menwith Hill in protest of the new Serious Organized Crime and Police Act.
She was one of 1,000 women recognized in 2005 by the organization Peace Women Across the Globe as someone they deemed worthy of a Noble Peace Prize.
She also ran unsuccessfully as an independent candidate for Parliament in 2001, promising to rid the country of American nuclear weapons and the RAF Menwith Hill station if elected.
Attempts to reach John were unsuccessful.
