Animal rights campaigners send 'Aids-contaminated' post to researchers, jailed
Two members of an animal rights group aimed to shut down Cambridge animal testing laboratory by scaring staff and suppliers.
In a shocking incident, two members of an animal rights group have been sentenced for their roles in decade-long intimidation where researchers were targeted with inflammable devices, false accusations of paedophilia and packages claimed to have been contaminated with AIDS virus.
The husband-wife duo of Sven Van Hasselt and Natasha Simpkins 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.
The duo’s aim was to put HLS out of business by harassing supply companies into cutting ties with it.
The series of attacks, which happened in France, Switzerland and Germany during 2008 and 2009, included paint stripper being daubed on cars and graffiti sprayed at employees’ homes warning: “Drop HLS or you will be dead.”
