Animal rights campaigners sentenced
Fri, 26 January 2018
Animal rights campaigners sentenced for attacks in 2008/9
Two members of an animal rights group (Shac) have been sentenced for their roles in a decade-long campaign of intimidation in which researchers were targeted with incendiary devices, false allegations of paedophilia and packages claimed to have been contaminated with the Aids virus.
British woman Natasha Simpkins and Dutch husband Sven Van Hasselt were part of Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (Shac), which aimed to shut down a British animal testing company by terrorising its staff, suppliers, and business partners across Europe.
Van Hasselt, 31, was jailed for five years and Simpkins, 30, was given a two-year prison sentence suspended for two years after they admitted conspiracy to blackmail at Winchester Crown Court.