A woman from Crystal Palace has told a court she is not guilty of damaging two RAF planes during an alleged break-in at an Oxfordshire air base last year.
Lara Downes, 44, entered not-guilty pleas at a plea and trial preparation hearing at the Old Bailey on Friday, 23 October. She denies two charges: criminal damage, and entering a prohibited place for a purpose prejudicial to the safety or interests of the UK.
The court heard she is accused of damaging two RAF Voyager aircraft in an alleged attack by Palestine Action at RAF Brize Norton on 20 June 2025. Nothing has been proven against her, and the pleas mean the allegations will now be tested at a trial.
Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb remanded Downes into custody. She will next appear for an administrative hearing, on a date that has yet to be confirmed, and a trial date has been set for 25 January 2027 at Woolwich Crown Court.
What the two charges mean
Criminal damage, in plain terms, is the charge used when someone is accused of destroying or damaging property belonging to someone else without a lawful excuse. The second charge concerns entering a place that is protected by law — in this case, a military air base — for a purpose said to be prejudicial to the safety or interests of the country. Both are serious charges, and both are denied in full.
The distinction between being accused and being found guilty matters here. A person who is charged has not been convicted of anything. Downes has now formally denied the charges, so the prosecution will have to prove its case at trial, and a jury will decide whether the allegations stand up.
What happens at a plea and trial preparation hearing
A plea and trial preparation hearing is one of the early formal stages of a Crown Court case. The defendant is asked to enter a plea to each charge, and the court then sets out the practical steps that must happen before any trial — things like timetables for evidence, the length of the trial, and which court will hear it.
Where a defendant pleads not guilty, as Downes has, the case moves towards trial rather than sentencing. Friday’s hearing fixed that direction of travel: an administrative hearing will deal with outstanding case-management matters, and the trial itself is listed for January 2027, more than a year away.
Being remanded into custody means Downes will remain in custody while the case proceeds, rather than being released on bail in the meantime. That is a decision for the judge, and it does not indicate anything about the eventual outcome of the trial.
The timeline so far
The alleged incident dates back to the summer of 2025. The court heard that two Voyager planes sustained damage at RAF Brize Norton on 20 June that year, in an alleged attack attributed to Palestine Action. Brize Norton, in Oxfordshire, is the RAF’s main air transport hub, and the Voyager is the aircraft used for air-to-air refuelling and for transporting personnel.
More than a year on from that date, the case has now reached the plea stage at the Old Bailey, one of London’s most senior criminal courts. The gap between the alleged incident and the plea hearing is not unusual in complex cases, where investigations and preparations can take many months.
The trial, when it opens at Woolwich Crown Court in January 2027, will hear the full evidence from both sides. Until then, the only facts established are the pleas themselves, the charges as read out in court, and the timetable the judge has set.
Court cases of this kind often draw close attention because they involve both a military site and a protest group, but the legal question at trial will be a narrow one: whether the prosecution can prove, beyond reasonable doubt, that Downes committed the offences she is charged with. She denies them, and the presumption of innocence applies unless and until a jury decides otherwise.
Further hearings will set out the remaining steps before the trial. The administrative hearing, whose date is still to be confirmed, will deal with the practical arrangements, and the trial listing for 25 January 2027 gives both sides time to prepare their cases.
Image: The Old Bailey in London. Library photo: David Hillas, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
