A SOUTHAMPTON teacher has been cleared of breaking into an airport and boarding a US Air Force plane.

Chris Bluemel, 26, was one of eight anti-war protesters who cut through a chain link fence at Prestwick Airport in Scotland last August.

The music teacher, of Portswood Road, Southampton, had been accused of trespass and boarding a US military aircraft.

But Ayr Sheriff Court upheld a submission by all the defendants that signs on the airport fence did not clearly indicate trespassing was an offence at the facility.

Those accused had argued that wording on the signs at the site did not indicate a person breaching the fence would be committing an illegal act.

This exact wording was necessary according to the Civil Aviation Act 1992, the defendants argued.

Sheriff Montgomery accepted this. The prosecution had not produced evidence the signs had this specific wording, he said.

The judge said positive identification from two police officers was needed for a conviction.

This was the case for Armstrong, but only one officer could confirm seeing Mr Bluemel, who teaches A-level music and plays violin in the band Louche Manouche.

Mr Bluemel, who is also a representative of a number of peace and environmental campaigns in Southampton, said: "I am delighted that I have not faced criminal penalty for taking the actions I did to expose the use of Prestwick Airport to facilitate war crimes in the Middle East last year. Nonetheless, it seems alarming that we have been prosecuted at all while no action is being taken in respect of military cargo planes landing without the permission of the Civil Aviation Authority last year."