A freelance photographer is spending Christmas preparing to face trial in America on a conspiracy charge.

Steve Morgan, arrested after covering a Greenpeace demonstration against the ‘Star Wars’ missile programme, faces trial in Los Angeles on January 8.

He faces up to six years in prison following his arrest at the Vandenburg USAF base in California.

He was working for Greenpeace at the time and covers a variety of news, but began his career on a weekly newspaper in Hull before moving on to the Yorkshire Post and then the Independent.

Despite his press credentials he was locked up for a week before being released on $20,000 bail, and had to find another $50,000 before he was allowed to return home pending the trial.

But he’ll be back across the Atlantic ten days before the trial to prepare his case and meet the bail conditions.

He told Holdthefrontpage: “There’s a degree of being fatalistic about it and we have just got to prepare as we can on the case.

“The most likely scenario is between nought and six months – nought being a suspended sentence or fine.

“One of the reasons the case was put off until January was because of the incidents of September 11 and being able to get a decent jury trial. People’s views have changed and there has been a lot of discussion about this by my lawyers.

“But Christmas will be great. I’ve got two young sons and family will be coming to visit – but it is always there at the back of our minds that I’ve got to go back.”

Steve’s family – partner Heather and children George, (five), and Henry, (three) – have supported him throughout and flew to America to be with him while his travel was being restricted.

Steve, who lives in Frome, Somerset, is to be tried for conspiracy to violate a safety zone around the test and conspiracy to violate a military officer’s direct order.

He accompanied a group of 15 activists who delayed the launch of a test missile for 40 minutes by sailing an inflatable boat into the test area.

Greenpeace, for its part, is not asking for the charges to be dropped but are asking that a custodial sentence should not be considered for what they say was a peaceful protest.

The National Union of Journalists is also backing him and campaigned for his right to fly home when it looked like he could be confined to America until the trial.

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