bicycle
21-01-2009, 01:58 PM
Seven animal rights activists who blackmailed companies linked to Huntingdon Life Sciences in an attempt to close down the animal testing lab were today jailed for between four and 11 years.
The six-year international conspiracy between 2001 and 2007 targeted firms across the UK and Europe that either supplied or had secondary links with the Cambridgeshire-based company.
The leaders of the blackmail conspiracy, Gregg Avery, 41, Natasha Avery, 39, and Heather Nicholson, 41, were founder members of Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (Shac) which was a front organisation which organised strategy and attacks on the firms and their staff, often under the badge of the Animal Liberation Front.
They were assisted by computer expert Gavin Medd-Hall, 45, who researched the victims for Shac, and three "foot soldiers", Gerrah Selby, 20, Daniel Wadham, 21, and Daniel Amos, 22.
Sentencing the activists at Winchester Crown Court, Mr Justice Butterfield called the campaign "urban terrorism" and a "relentless, sustained and merciless persecution" which had made the victims lives "a living hell".
The campaign used threats such as claiming that managers of companies which supplied Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS) were paedophiles.
Homes of staff, and firms, had hoax bomb parcels sent to them or received threatening telephone calls. Threats of violence were also used to force companies to cut links with HLS.
Words like "puppy killer" and "scum" were painted on homes and cars of workers.
http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/cn_news_home/DisplayArticle.asp?ID=383169
The six-year international conspiracy between 2001 and 2007 targeted firms across the UK and Europe that either supplied or had secondary links with the Cambridgeshire-based company.
The leaders of the blackmail conspiracy, Gregg Avery, 41, Natasha Avery, 39, and Heather Nicholson, 41, were founder members of Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (Shac) which was a front organisation which organised strategy and attacks on the firms and their staff, often under the badge of the Animal Liberation Front.
They were assisted by computer expert Gavin Medd-Hall, 45, who researched the victims for Shac, and three "foot soldiers", Gerrah Selby, 20, Daniel Wadham, 21, and Daniel Amos, 22.
Sentencing the activists at Winchester Crown Court, Mr Justice Butterfield called the campaign "urban terrorism" and a "relentless, sustained and merciless persecution" which had made the victims lives "a living hell".
The campaign used threats such as claiming that managers of companies which supplied Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS) were paedophiles.
Homes of staff, and firms, had hoax bomb parcels sent to them or received threatening telephone calls. Threats of violence were also used to force companies to cut links with HLS.
Words like "puppy killer" and "scum" were painted on homes and cars of workers.
http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/cn_news_home/DisplayArticle.asp?ID=383169