Date: 29 May 2009
Animal rights campaigner sentenced over threatening letters
Three lawful businesses with links to animal research and a hotel that served foie gras were the victims of one animal rights campaigner, who was today given a 12 month community order concurrent for all four offences.
Lisa Everton, 43, of York Street, Newcastle-Under-Lyme, was also given a 12 month supervision order and must pay £80 costs after making threats to kill employees of the four businesses in January and February 2009 if they did not comply with her demands.
The first e-mail, sent on 20 January 2009 demanded that the York hotel stopped selling foie gras. On 3 and 4 February 2009, threats were made in e-mails sent to Astra Zeneca and GlaxoSmithKline, organisations which have links to medical research using animals. A further e-mail was sent to Huntingdon Life Sciences on 10 February 2009.
The National Domestic Extremism Team (NDET), working with Staffordshire Police, investigated the crimes. The defendant was arrested on 16 April and subsequently pleaded guilty at North Staffordshire Magistrates Court on 30 April 2009.
Chief Inspector John Maddox, from Staffordshire Police's North Staffordshire division, said: "This was a very serious offence, regardless of whether or not she intended to carry out her threats. It is completely unacceptable for an individual to seek to intimidate another in this way and the police will continue to work closely with the Crown Prosecution Service to bring offenders to justice.
"The majority of animal rights protesters campaign lawfully and the police will go to great lengths to ensure they can continue to do so. In this case, one individual crossed the line and we are pleased with the sentence that has been given by magistrates today."
