Seven animal rights activists involved in a “systematic and relentless” blackmail campaign against firms they believed to be working with an animal testing laboratory are due to be sentenced.

Four of the defendants were convicted of conspiracy to blackmail between November 15, 2001 and May 2, 2007 after a three-month trial at Winchester Crown Court last year.

They were: Heather Nicholson, 41, and 21-year-old Daniel Wadham, formerly of Pond Croft, Yateley; Gerrah Selby, 20, of Aldershot Road, Church Crookham; and Gavin Medd-Hall, from Selwood Road, Croydon.

The other three - Daniel Amos, 22, of Aldershot Road, Church Crookham, and Greg and Natasha Avery, aged 41 and 39, both from Little Moorcote, Lower Common, Eversley - had previously admitted conspiracy to blackmail.

An eight defendant, Trevor Holmes, from Newcastle, was cleared of the same charge.

The sentencing hearing could take up to three days. 

Click here to read the background to the case.

The seven protesters were part of the animal rights group Stop Huntingdon Life Sciences (SHAC).

SHAC was formed in 1999 and its sole purpose was to shut down Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS).

SHAC members would used “unwarranted demands with menaces” to get firms they believed associated with HLS to stop doing business with them.

Details of the associated firms would be published on the internet and as a result SHAC supporters would target them with “direct action”.

Under the badge Animal Liberation Front or the Animal Rights Militia, SHAC members would use threats such as hoax bombs, claiming company employees were paedophiles and criminal damage.

The action would only stop when a targeted firm put out a “capitulation statement” to SHAC saying they would no longer trade with HLS.

The defendants' activities were uncovered during a two-year investigation by Hampshire, Surrey, Sussex, Kent and Thames Valley Police.