Animal rights graverobbers sentenced to 40 years

Four animal rights activists who pleaded guilty to conducting a terror campaign against a family of Staffordshire guinea pig breeders have been jailed for a total of 40 years.

Their campaign against the Hall family gained widespread notoriety with the desecration of a family grave and the theft of the remains of grandmother Gladys Hammond in 2004.

Jon Ablewhite, 36, Kerry Whitburn, 36, and John Smith, 39, received 12 year sentences for conspiracy to blackmail while Josephine Mayo, 38, was jailed for four years.

Gladys Hammond's remains were found near Hednesford earlier this month and identified by DNA test.

Mrs Hammond was the mother-in-law of John Hall who ran the farm with his brother.

In a statement the Hall family said they had been the victims of "psychological warfare, verbal abuse, criminal acts and very offensive propoganda."

"We struggle to comprehand how anyone could conceive such a plan. We could only assume that they were devoid of all emotions."

Alistair Currie, Campaigns Director of the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection said: "We hope that the sentencing of the activists who have admitted responsibility for the utterly unacceptable tactics used against Darley Oaks Farm will mark the end of this depressing chapter.

"This was an ugly campaign against an ugly business. These four people must face the consequences of their crimes but we are now anxious to see the focus of this debate go back to where it belongs — on the waste and animal suffering that takes place inside the labs."

In January this year the six-year campaign caused the family to end their guinea pig breeding programme.

(GB)