Three men are facing 12 years jail time, after admitting they terrorized owners of guinea pig farm by digging up the body of a family member and stealing it from the churchyard, reported the Telegraph today.
The men were animal rights activists, protesting the Hall family’s operation of supplying guinea pigs for scientific research. A fourth conspirator, the girlfriend of one of the men, is facing six years jail time.
An aggressive campaign against the family began six years ago, called Save the Newchurch Guinea Pigs, to force the Halls to close their business. Some protestors began regular demonstrations outside the farm, but a group of extremists began an accelerating campaign of intimidation.
Threatening letters, abusive graffiti and attacks against farm equipment eventually led to raids on local pubs and explosives let off at night, affecting much of the area community as well as the Hall family.
Local business owners and suppliers used by the family were forced to withdraw their services after receiving threats. John Hall resigned from the golf club after its greens were dug up. The Halls had to sell their dairy herd when the milk buyer was targeted.
Brothers Chris and John Hall refuse to capitulate to the attacks, until the body of Chris Hall’s mother-in-law Gladys Hammond was stolen from its grave in St. Peter’s Churchyard, Yoxall. The brothers gave in.
“To desecrate lovely Gladys’s grave is an absolute outrage, it just goes beyond belief really. They call us scum but I wonder if they really know the meaning of the word,” John Hall told the BBC.
The Hall family hoped that closing down the business would prompt the return of Mrs. Hammond’s body, but her remains have not been found.
(This article courtesy of LifeSiteNews.com.)
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