TWO Little Hulton women were given a seven day jail sentence yesterday for refusing to pay fines imposed after an anti-nuclear protest. But Christine Dean and Paula Truscott, both from Manchester Road East, Little Hulton, walked free from Salford Magistrates Court after being told they had a week to pay the fines or face jail. The magistrates said they had no alternative but to impose the sentences because the women had refused to give financial information. They were given one last chance to pay the fines.

But the women were adamant that they would not pay the fines on a matter of principle and after the hearing said they were prepared to go to jail next week.

Dean and Truscott were convicted at Whitehaven Magistrates Court of wilful obstruction following a protest outside the Sellafield nuclear plant in Cumbria last year. They were finedf £135 with £175 costs.

The women took part in the 150 strong blockade of Sellafield when workers were prevented from entering the plant. The action was in protest at the opening of the controversial THORP reprocessing plant which processes spent fuel rods to reclaim uranium and plutonium.

Both women refused to consult solicitors and told magistrates they would not pay the fines under any circumstances.

Christine Dean told the court: "To pay this fine would be admitting I had done something wrong. I have not committed a crime and have tried to prevent a greater crime.

"I understand you have a duty to perform but I answer to a higher authority."

The women slammed the magistrates' decision, calling it a waste of time.

Paula Truscott told the BEN: "We have said all along that we will not pay these fines and what has happened today is a waste of everyone's time.

"Sometimes it is necessary to stand outside the law to prevent far more serious crimes such as those of the nuclear industry and that's what we've done."

Dean added: "I do not want to go to prison. I am not looking forward to the prospect one bit, but we are both prepared to make a stand against what is going on at Sellafield.

"Sellafield produces military grade plutonium to make nuclear weapons and that is a crime as far as we are concerned. The waste is dumped in the land and sea to do harm for hundreds of thousands of years."

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