A peace campaigner kicked a police inspector in the face during an incident at a North Yorkshire RAF base, a court heard.

Lindis Percy denies the charge, and told Pickering Magistrates Court that the officer had assaulted her following another protest ten years before.

The prosecution alleges that Percy, aged 59, of Holderness Road, Hull, kicked out at Ministry of Defence (MoD) Inspector Barry Frost, damaging his glasses, at RAF Fylingdales, on the North York Moors, last August.

Percy was at the early warning station - currently at the centre of US President George Bush's contentious "Son of Star Wars" missile defence proposals - protesting against what she says are invalid bylaws banning entry to the site.

The former Greenham Common activist was lifted into an MoD police Land Rover by three officers, including a PC Dobbs and Insp Frost, who was holding her feet.

"I held on to the sill of the Land Rover with both hands," said Percy.

"Mr Dobbs wrenched my fingers off and they were trying to take me head first into the Land Rover."

It was alleged that Percy kicked out, striking Insp Frost in the face and damaging his glasses.

Asked if she kicked out, Percy said: "Not at all. I take no pleasure in saying I have been arrested hundreds of times under bylaws. I have been in hospital twice because of violence, but I never respond with violence."

When confronted by the officer about the alleged assault moments later, Percy said she thought to herself: "You have made this up."

She said she could see no damage and that Insp Frost was "perfectly fine to drive".

The court heard that Percy had lodged a complaint against Insp Frost for assault when he was custody sergeant at Menwith Hill in 1991.

Percy said the claim was substantiated by the Police Complaints Authority and the officer "admonished".

Asked by Helen Gamble, prosecuting, if she bore Insp Frost a grudge, Percy said: "I don't bear a grudge against him. It is hopeless thinking."

Asked if her feet might have made contact with the officer without her realising it, she said: "I would have known if I had done that."

Percy, who admitted having more than a dozen convictions for theft, criminal damage, contempt of court, obstructing a police officer and aggravated trespass, denies assaulting a police officer and criminal damage.

The prosecution's case was heard in Scarborough Magistrates Court in February, but was adjourned for lengthy legal submissions.

The defence request that the case be thrown out on the grounds that there was no case to answer was rejected.

The trial continues.

Updated: 10:59 Friday, May 25, 2001