Five animal rights activists have been jailed for intimidating staff at firms linked to a Cambridgeshire animal testing laboratory.Nicole Vosper, Sarah Whitehead, Thomas Harris, Nicola Tapping and Jason Mullan were jailed for between 15 months and six years.
They admitted targeting staff from the supply firms of Huntingdon Life Sciences, Winchester Crown Court heard.
Alfie Fitzpatrick, 21, received a 12-month suspended prison sentence.
He also admitted taking part and was ordered to complete 100 hours of community work.
Harris and Tapping are from Gosport in Hampshire while Jason Mullen is from London and Fitzpatrick from Solihull, West Midlands.
Vosper is from Newquay in Cornwall and and Whitehead is from Littlehampton, West Sussex.
The six were all members of a group called Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC).
The court heard how the group waged an international campaign of intimidation against a host of companies to try to force the closure of Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS).
Whitehead, 53, of Thorncroft Road, was jailed for six years and made the subject of a 10-year anti-social behaviour order when released.
Vosper, 22, was jailed for three-and-a-half years and given a five-year anti-social behaviour order.
9 comments:
Great news, made all the more enjoyable because Vosper was telling peopple recently that, "people like me do not go to jail"
Fail !
Meanwhile the SHAC 'campaign' in the UK targets more companies with the most obscure links to HLS. This time they decided to demo outside Kajima Estates on the flimsy premis that they are landlords to Fortress Investments. The down side for SHAC is that nobody at Kajima had the faintest idea what the demo was about and at least two members of staff thought it was a demo against Scientology.
What a bunch of vegans !
It becomes clearer why some of the older usual suspects from the seventies and eighties were never visible in the SHAC campaign: they fully supported the terror, but knew that those doing it would attract undercover officers and be vulnerable to informants.
But Ronnie Lee, Tim Daley and co are all out there still, and still prepared to encourage others to KILL in furtherance of their aims, as long as there's no danger of their going (back) to jail themselves.
SHAC may have gone further than most "genuine" AR activists felt comfortable with, but they never went far enough for Ronnie Lee!
The real reason the old hands want a killing, is that then they get a despairing lifer for a martyr, who might be bullied into starving himself to death in jail. During which process, Ronnie Lee is guaranteed to put himself before the cameras.
While we're justifiably celebrating the end of SHAC and its loathesome activities, we all need to save a bit of disgust for Ronnie Lee and the other ALF founders, who wanted and frequently called for, far worse, but haven't been detected doing a single thing themselves, except attempt to claim a bit of vicarious glamour from Barry Horne's suicide.
Lots of attempts to talk this up with posts to the usual websites (Indylies etc) saying, "not to bad", "could have been worse" etc etc. The real state of affairs is of course very different. At least three of them expected to walk away yesterday under 'time served' so going back to jail was a shock. The total jail time for the bigger fish was longer than anticipated and this last round of court time has pretty much bought SHAC to an end as an AR campaign group.
The important work in AR is now being done by others who have distanced themselves from SHAC recognising that real results are achieved through politics not by getting middle aged women with hormonal problems, pre op transexuals and the more extreme parts of the feminist movement ("all men are rapists") to stand outside buildings and shout through megaphones.
SHAC is finaly near death and SHACWatch has played a part in that killing, the important work of animal welfare can now be concentrated on.
And another trial in december, will the next contenders step forward for sentencing .
Maybe if they did demonstrate against Scientology, they'd get some public support!
Interesting that Kajima Estates's first thought that the demo against them was anti-Scientologist...
It's worth watching John Curtin, that most lethal of back cockpit drivers, for attempts to make other small AR groups resort to extreme violence on his behalf.
Got to feel sorry for Alfie Fitzpatrick, a classic groomed, used and discarded SHAC foot soldier who has ruined his life as a result of the SHAC cult. Let's hope he can make that break away from them, others have managed tp.
Agree with you 100% about Alfie Fitzpatrick. Such a shame to see a young man's life ruined by these scum.
The previous posters mention of Scientology is an interesting one as the way that SHAC has recruited, groomed and used individuals for the benefit of the leadership has strong paralels with the way that Scientology works.
Cults pick on the needy, the excluded, the weak and the outsider and provide a substitute family and social network that replaces a life as the majority would understand it. SHAC has history of doing this with individuals like Fitzpatrick who are at a vulnerable time in their life and seeking direction, they are the perfect foot soldier for 'actions', for the risky email campaigns and of course for the court hearings that are now a bigger part of SHAC activities than protesting.
We all have a responsibility to look out for youngsters in our family and social group who are impressionable and may be influenced by cults such as SHAC, Scientology and the rest. This is very important at present because SHAC is in a dire state both financialy and membership wise so they are desperate to get new members and income.
I think you are all getting a bit carried away, these people are very capable of thinking for themselves anyway Fitzpatrick's conviction will be spent in 5 years so his life is hardly 'ruined'.
Post a Comment