JAIL terms of 12 years imposed on three animal rights extremists for their parts in a terror campaign against guinea pig breeders - in which an 82-year-old woman's body was stolen from her grave - were "fully merited", the Court of Appeal ruled today.
Three judges in London rejected sentence appeals by John Ablewhite, 37, of Hawley Street, Manchester, Kerry Whitburn, 37, of Summer Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham, and John Smith, 40, of Leicester Street, Wolverhampton.
They were each jailed for 12 years at Nottingham Crown Court last May after pleading guilty to a charge of conspiring to blackmail the owners of a guinea pig breeding farm in Staffordshire.
The six-year campaign against the Hall family, who bred the animals for medical research purposes, was today described by one of the appeal judges as "terrifying" and "truly wicked".
As part of the campaign against the family, the body of Mrs Gladys Hammond, the mother-in-law of one of the Hall brothers, was stolen from her grave in a churchyard in Yoxall, Staffs, in October 2004.
Her body was only recovered last year after Smith disclosed its location in a nearby beauty spot in Cannock Chase to police.
Jailing the four last year, Judge Michael Pert QC described the defendants as part of a "lunatic fringe" of the animal rights movement who had outraged public decency by their crime.
He told them: "You thought to enforce your view not by reasoned debate or lawful protest but by subjecting wholly innocent citizens to a campaign of terror."
The judge said the Hall family had run a lawful business, licensed by the Home Office.
The appeals against sentence were dismissed by Lord Justice Latham, sitting with Mr Justice Butterfield and Mr Justice King.
