Animal rights extremists guilty of blackmail

Seven animal rights extremists who subjected scores of victims to a “climate of fear” have been convicted of co-ordinating a six-year campaign of blackmail and menaces to shut down Huntingdon Life Sciences.

The three women and four men were found guilty after a two-year, £3.5 million police investigation into Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty, an international campaign to close down the Cambridgeshire-based animal research laboratory.

Prosecutors believe that among these members of SHAC's hierarchy were some of the key figures in the Animal Liberation Front, the often violent movement that acts as an umbrella for much animal rights extremism worldwide.

Two of SHAC's founding members, Gregg Avery, 41, and his wife Natasha, 39, along with fellow activist Daniel Amos, 22, pleaded guilty earlier this year to conspiracy to blackmail.

A group of animal rights activists waged a six-year blackmail campaign with the aim of shutting down Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS).

But their targets were not the Cambridgeshire-based animal research laboratory itself - instead they created a climate of fear among businesses that had links with HLS.

Tactics used by members of Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (Shac) between 2001 and 2007 included falsely accusing company directors of being paedophiles,

They also posted used sanitary towels and hoax bomb parcels, caused criminal damage to homes and other property, and made threatening telephone calls.