member of stop huntingdon animal cruelty goes on trial in the united kingdom

by Tim Phillips

Debbie Vincent was one of more than thirty people arrested during raids against Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) in May 2007. Five years later, she was charged with conspiracy to blackmail Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS), an animal-testing company. According to today’s Guardian article,

She was arrested in July 2012 at the same time as the Swiss-born Sven van Hasselt and a British woman, Natasha Simpkins, who was born in Germany. [Simpkins and van Hasselt] were detained in the Netherlands and are still awaiting extradition to the UK to face the same charge.

The three activists, known as the Blackmail 3, are accused of trying to put HLS out of business by threatening to harm its suppliers. Surveillance carried out on SHAC headquarters, as part of a police investigation, recorded phone conversations allegedly showing Vincent’s involvement. She’s currently on trial and facing time in prison.