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Croydon and Chiswick animal activists due for sentencing over Huntingdon Life Sciences supplier blackmail

8:30am Monday 19th January 2009 in Croydon

Seven animal rights activists - including one from Croydon and another from Chiswick - are due to be sentenced for blackmailing companies who supplied Huntingdon Life Sciences.

Gerrah Selby, 20, from Chiswick and Gavin Medd-Hall, 45, from Croydon along with Heather Nicholson, 41, from Eversley, in Hampshire, Daniel Wadham, 21, of Bromley orchestrated the campaign which ran between 2001 and 2007, Winchester Crown Court heard.

The maximum sentence for the offence is 14 years' imprisonment.

Three other people - Gregg Avery, Natasha Avery and Daniel Amos - pleaded guilty to conspiracy to blackmail at Winchester Crown Court, Hampshire, last month.

The hierarchy of the group - called Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (Shac) - used a number of tactics: hoax bombs parcels; criminal damage; threatening telephone calls; and false claims that the managers of the companies were paedophiles; in a bid to force them to cut links with the animal testing company.

The aim was to target suppliers or any company with a secondary link with Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), based in Cambridge.

An example of their intimidation included the sending of used sanitary towels in the post, saying they were contaminated with the Aids virus.

In another example, roads outside the homes of company managers were daubed with words like "puppy killer".

The blackmail would only stop when managers put out a "capitulation statement" to Shac saying they would not supply HLS, which conducts animal testing for the pharmaceutical industry.

The defendants were also linked to criminal activity in Europe and America, targeting companies there.

Comments(14)

scoffer says...
10:08am Mon 19 Jan 09

Oh yes... another bunch of nasties, here's what they did... 'used a number of tactics: hoax bombs parcels; criminal damage; threatening telephone calls; and false claims that the managers of the companies were paedophiles; in a bid to force them to cut links with the animal testing company' ...Oh yes, I think all decent posters on here would be horrified to see this happening - but this is what happens when certain individuals collect personal details of people they don't like - and start disributing them... disgusting!!

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gertrude grendal says...
10:40am Mon 19 Jan 09

Bad means used to fight a good cause. Unfortunately, these people give animal lovers and those who don't want animals tortured a bad name. They will receive harder sentences than child murderers because big business is involved. Scoffer is right, with our details on a data basis, the gestapo-style authorities will have a field day.

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Brian Sewer says...
1:18pm Mon 19 Jan 09

I agree everyones name is listed somewhere and they can easily be found lets hope the extreamist element on here dont end up in court

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I hope not says...
1:53pm Mon 19 Jan 09

I agree with you Gertrude, good cause, wrong way of going about it. These people use terrorist tactics to put their point across are wrong. Violence or threats of violence is no way to get your point across and they deserve everything that is coming to them. They cannot go around forcing their beliefs on people through threats of violence.

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upper borewood says...
3:26pm Mon 19 Jan 09

Brian Sewer, Tarring W.Sussex says...
1:18pm Mon 19 Jan 09
I agree everyones name is listed somewhere and they can easily be found lets hope the extreamist element on here dont end up in court

Does that mean the extremely boring like you?

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Brian Sewer says...
4:56pm Mon 19 Jan 09

Didnt someone else use the term of "orchestrating a campaign" on this forum somewhere before?
Im not boring upperborwood you should get a life

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scoffer says...
9:23am Tue 20 Jan 09

Indeed Brian - I posted that up after nastyoltom decided to play her trump nasty card of posting up honest folks names, addresses, and telephone numbers - orchestrating violence is an extremist thing - and these people are very dangerous... let's hope good prevails over bad!!

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NastyMrTom says...
11:02am Tue 20 Jan 09


I posted up your address and telephone number did I ... no , I mentioned a name from a list that is there for all to read if they want.

You've already mentioned on here the road you live in ... and that's not the same address is it so stop boring the hell out of everyone and go leafleting or whatever it is you do for the BNP

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scoffer says...
1:41pm Tue 20 Jan 09

Err... pardon me nastyoltom, where have I said what road I live in ? what gives you the right to post up anything from a stolen membership list or naming of companies in Barnsley or Beckenham eh ? you silly schmuck!! lmao!!

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Brian Sewer says...
2:18pm Tue 20 Jan 09

Why does nastymrtom keep denying he broke the guardian rules by putting up peoples names on here
Is nastymrtom going to put his real name and address up or hide behind a nasty name

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NastyMrTom says...
2:33pm Tue 20 Jan 09

scoffer wrote:
Err... pardon me nastyoltom, where have I said what road I live in ? what gives you the right to post up anything from a stolen membership list or naming of companies in Barnsley or Beckenham eh ? you silly schmuck!! lmao!!

What's the problem with posting names of companies ... you make it sound like they've got something to hide.

Now where that membership list link ...

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NastyMrTom says...
2:34pm Tue 20 Jan 09

Brian Sewer wrote:
Why does nastymrtom keep denying he broke the guardian rules by putting up peoples names on here Is nastymrtom going to put his real name and address up or hide behind a nasty name

sorry Brian I'll speak to the organ grinder I think not his monkey

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AR2048 says...
1:56pm Wed 21 Jan 09

My post did not breach any posting rules so why it removed?

Is the Croydon Guardian involved in a conspiracy to stop the public knowing the TRUTH about Huntingdon Life Sciences eg the illegal experiments on primates carried out inside HLS, about which government did nothing and has consistently covered-up?

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NastyMrTom says...
12:37pm Wed 4 Feb 09

scoffer wrote:
Oh yes... another bunch of nasties, here's what they did... 'used a number of tactics: hoax bombs parcels; criminal damage; threatening telephone calls; and false claims that the managers of the companies were paedophiles; in a bid to force them to cut links with the animal testing company' ...Oh yes, I think all decent posters on here would be horrified to see this happening - but this is what happens when certain individuals collect personal details of people they don't like - and start disributing them... disgusting!!
Ho ho ho

BNP candidate's secret criminal past
EXCLUSIVE: A candidate for the Waddon byelection sent death threats to a drugs company involved in animal testing.

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