Huntingdon Life saboteurs jailed for 'urban terrorism'

SEVEN animal rights activists who blackmailed companies linked to Huntingdon Life Sciences in an attempt to shut it down were jailed today for between four and 11 years.

Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty conducted a six-year conspiracy between 2001 and 2007 targeting firms in the UK and Europe which either supplied or had secondary links to the Cambridge-based company.

Shac's founders - Gregg Avery, 41, his wife Natasha Avery, 39, and Heather Nicholson, 41 - led the blackmail and 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 group 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 sent hoax bomb parcels to the homes of staff. Threats of violence were also used and Shac would not desist until the supplier issued a "capitulation statement" saying it would end links with Huntingdon Life Sciences.

The seven were convicted of conspiracy to blackmail at a trial last year. Nicholson, from Eversley in Hampshire, received 11 years, the Averys, also from Eversley, received nine years each, Medd-Hall, from Croydon, received eight years, Wadham, from Bromley, was sentenced to five years, Selby, from Chiswick, received four years, and Amos from Church Crookham, Hampshire, received four years.

The judge said he had little confidence Shac's leaders would not continue their activities when released.