VETERAN peace campaigner Lindis Percy accused the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and police of conspiracy during a court hearing yesterday in which two charges against her were dropped.

Appearing before Harrogate magistrates, Mrs Percy, a 61-year-old grandmother, faced allegations of contravening bylaws at the US spy base at Menwith Hill, near Harrogate, by refusing to leave the site when required by a Ministry of Defence police officer on February 21 and August 22.

After Mrs Percy, a co-ordinator of the Campaign for the Accountability of American Bases, had pleaded not guilty, Peter Scott, prosecuting, told court chairman John Carter that he was instructed to offer no evidence on either matter.

He declined Mrs Percy's suggestion that he should give reasons for not proceeding, saying he was not obliged to do so.

Mrs Percy, a midwife and health visitor, of Holderness, Hull, said the move meant that in the past six years no fewer than 120 bylaw contravention charges brought against her had been dropped.

Campaigners wanted a case to go to trial to test their belief that the bylaws - the second set drafted after original ones were ruled invalid by the High Court - would not stand up to legal scrutiny.

"Not once in 120 times has the CPS allowed a case to come to court. I deliberately broke the law on both these occasions so the matter could come to court.

"We firmly believe these bylaws would be ruled invalid as the original ones were in 1993."

She had been well inside the base on both occasions and had immediately told police she had "committed a crime".

Outside the court Mrs Percy, who will apply for costs to be awarded against the CPS, said campaigners were considering seeking a judicial review of the Crown's actions.