A notorious animal rights activist has been banned from going near a greyhound racing stadium for five years following a series of protests.

Veteran campaigner Sarah Whitehead, 64, was previously jailed for six years in 2010 for her role in a relentless strategy of "violence and terror" against companies and people linked to controversial research organisation Huntingdon Life Sciences.

Now Whitehead – known to other activists as "Mumsy" – has been banned from an area near the Coral Greyhound Stadium in Hove, East Sussex, after breaching the conditions of a Community Protection Notice

Whitehead, of Uckfield, East Sussex, was slapped with a Criminal Behaviour Order (CBO) by Brighton Magistrates' Court last Tuesday.

It comes after she attended an animal rights protest outside the stadium in December 2019 where she was issued with a Community Protection Warning.

Whitehead breached that order and was then given a Community Protection Notice, which she also breached a week later, resulting in her arrest.

The conditions of the CBO, which was imposed on July 20, and lasts for five years, ban her from entering at any time a defined area around the dog track.

Whitehead was one of five leading members of notorious animal rights group Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (Shac) jailed in 2010.
Their campaign involved posting hoax bombs to homes and offices, making threats of violence, daubing abusive graffiti and sending used tampons in the post.

Sentencing the activists in October 2010, the Recorder of Winchester, Judge Keith Cutler, said the campaign had been "synonymous with intimidation, violence and terror".

He told them: "The action was taken in order to distress and terrify, and in that you were successful."

The court heard they targeted firms which supplied Cambrige-based Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS) with the aim of closing the firm's animal testing lab.

Some company directors had leaflets distributed near their homes falsely telling neighbours they were convicted paedophiles while others received tampons in the post with messages claiming the blood was HIV positive.

Whitehead admitted conspiracy to blackmail companies and suppliers linked to HLS between 2001 and 2008.

Jailing Whitehead, Judge Cutler said she led the younger members on and corrupted them. She had carried out up to five direct attacks in a night.

A "long-term campaigner and trusted insider" within the conspiracy, he said she had not shown remorse and would be likely to offend again.

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