HOME | IMC UK | Editorial Guidelines | Mission Statement | About Us | Contact | Help | Support Us

SouthCoast Indymedia

Hampshire - animal rights man jailed

Shoreham Protester | 08.05.2005 13:30 | Animal Liberation | South Coast

On Friday 29th April, animal rights activist Keith Mann was sentenced to 6 months for contempt of court, just after receiving a 230 hours community punishment order for a raid on Wickham Laboratories in Hampshire on 13 December 2003.

He had been given detailed evidence of unlawful cosmetic experiments being conducted inside Wickham Labs.
The informant wished to remain anonymous, but went on to explain in depth the security systems at the lab.
Following up from this, Keith Mann went to look at the laboratory, and found it to be exactly as the whistle-blower had described.
He planned a raid on the facility in order to publicly expose Wickham, which ultimately ended in the liberation of 700 mice, and substantial paper work.
As promised, the paperwork showed that Wickham were testing a substance called Botulin Toxin (BOTOX) for Ipsen Biopharm.
Ipsen have publicly stated that a proportion of their Botulin Toxin is used in cosmetic procedures.
Unfortunately for Keith Mann, and the rescued mice, he was arrested, most of the mice were recovered, and Keith ended up in court with co defendant Melvyn Glintenkamp.
Throughout the trial. the judge repeatedly refused to allow evidence which would show that Wickham were testing unlawfully.
Any mention of Wickham’s past of using ex-pets in experiments was also silenced.
Another shocking detail revealed in the paperwork is the use of the notorious Lethal Dose 50 test (LD50).
This involves injecting a toxic substance into the stomachs of a batch of animals and increasing the dose until half have died.
The surviving half are then immediately gassed or have their necks broken. This practice, which is heavily criticised by scientists, was partially banned in 1999, except in the 'most exceptional circumstances'.
The Judge was eager to imprison Mr Mann, but due to his role as a full time carer, and a glowing parole report, he was obliged to give him a community service order.
As Keith was leaving the court, obviously delighted with the result, the technical director of Wickham Labs, a very angry looking, Mr. Bishop, muttered to Mr Mann "We'll get you lot next time".
Mr Mann responded, "Your troubles have only just started".
Mr. Bishop went into a customary frenzy, and started screaming and ranting.
Mr Mann was brought back into court, where he explained that he had not intended to threaten Mr Bishop, and that he meant when the public found out about the Botox testing, the lab would be in trouble through the negative publicity.
The judge ignored the explanation, gave Keith no chance to apologise, and was delighted to sentence him to 6 months for contempt of court.
Mr. Bishop’s provocation was overlooked, and his blatant lie, that Keith had warned him to 'look under your bed', was swallowed by the judge.
Keith himself has stated that he does not understand what such an obscure, and rather unlikely threat would even mean!
As usual the media have run wild with this. Articles have appeared in most
newspapers in an attempt to slam Mr Mann and turn the public against the animal rights movement.
The articles have all been very biased, concentrating largely on the past and Mr Mann's criminal record, dating back some 15 years.
Mr Mann has not been convicted for any offences which were violent and he has never threatened life, or physically harmed another being.
Many papers have reported that, according to a high court judge, "Mr. Mann carried out a terrorist style campaign against the meat industry".
They have not noted the fact that the judge in question was a retired meat farmer, with strong pro-bloodsports views, and that unlike genuine terrorists, Keith Mann has never hurt anybody, nor would he ever.
Despite the fervour of journalists digging into the past,
Wickham's very dubious past has not been touched upon.
We recommend that in future, journalists direct their attention in that direction.
It was widely reported several years ago, that a Wickham Director called upon the RSPCA to hand its stray dogs over to the vivisection industry - needless to say this is just the tip of the iceberg.
A raid on the Royal College of Surgeons showed that this Director also ran a company (APT) who supplied mongrel dogs to labs.
Even to the most casual observer, these dogs were ex-pets.
For more information: SARC, PO Box 5668, Poole, Dorset, BH15 3ZR 0845 458 4673  info@sarconline.co.uk
www.SARConline.co.uk The second defendant, Melvyn Glintenkamp, was sentenced to 150 hours of community punishment.
Write to Keith at: Keith Mann KJ0365, HMP Winchester, Romsey Rd, Winchester SO22 5DF

Shoreham Protester
- Homepage: http://www.SARConline.co.uk

Comments

Hide the following 3 comments

appeal

08.05.2005 17:39

will there be an appeal?

.


Not quite sure I understand

08.05.2005 21:06

Is this one of those situations where our legal traditions have diverged? (like they have over "libel")

The article seems to be saying that there was something wrong or peculiar that the judge refused to allow defenses based upon the (general) actions of the person(s) against whom the crimes were committed. Now I understand you may have something like the "necessity" defense. Even over this side of the pond you could TRY to argue "I had to break in because the lives of the mice were in imminent danger". Just like you could (in this case successfully) defend yourself against a charge of "destruction of property" because you broke down the dorr of a building you thought was on fire to rescue persons you thought were inside >

But the point here SEEMS to be simply "the target of my crime was a bad person conducting illegal activities (at least bad and/or immoral activitieis but it will serve my purpose even better to grant "illegal"). Is that the way your laws work? Are you able to defend yourself in court against a charge of "armed robbery" using the defense "the person I was robbing was a drug dealer and the money I took from him the proceeds of his illegal trade." Or do you think that it should be so (that such a defense be allowed).

PLEASE -- don't misunderstand me. I am NOT taking issue with the concept of doing what you think right in a situation like this to protect the animals. I am only taking issue with what seems to be an unreasonable attitude toward what should happen if you get caught. I would be concerned if "political crimes" of this sort receieved unduly severe sentences following conviction. Was that the case here? Is a couple hundred hours community service an unusually stiff sentence for a first time caught burglar in your neck of the woods?

Sorry -- I strongly disagree with he concept that it should be a defense that "the target of my crime was a bad, immoral, person whose actions are, or should be disapproved by the majority of the community and should be made illegal" If you do not see why, stop for a moment to consider who else could be attacked with impunity were that so.

Mike
mail e-mail: stepbystpefarm mtdata.com


defences

09.05.2005 07:47

The neccessity defence is effectively that you are (a) acting to prevent a crime and (b) your actions are reasonable. (a) obviously holds, as for (b) I gather from corporate media reports the judge said that if people just go round preventing crimes off their own back there would be 'anarchy'! Hmmm. So in order to prevent anarchy the judge let the criminal behaviour continue and punished the person trying to prevent it.

gh


Publish

Publish your news

Do you need help with publishing?

-->

Kollektives

Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World

Other UK IMCs
Bristol/South West
London
Northern Indymedia
Scotland

South Coast [navigation.actions2016]

South Coast [navigation.actions2015]

South Coast [navigation.actions2014]

NATO 2014

South Coast Actions 2013

G8 2013

South Coast Actions 2012

Workfare

South Coast Actions 2011

2011 Census Resistance
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Occupy Everywhere

South Coast Actions 2010

Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands

South Coast Actions 2009

COP15 Climate Summit 2009
G20 London Summit
Guantánamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
University Occupations for Gaza

South Coast Actions 2008

2008 Days Of Action For Autonomous Spaces
Campaign against Carmel-Agrexco
Climate Camp 2008
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Smash EDO
Stop Sequani Animal Testing
Stop the BNP's Red White and Blue festival

South Coast Actions 2007

Climate Camp 2007
DSEi 2007
G8 Germany 2007
Mayday 2007
No Border Camp 2007

South Coast Actions 2006

April 2006 No Borders Days of Action
Art and Activism Caravan 2006
Climate Camp 2006
Faslane
French CPE uprising 2006
G8 Russia 2006
Lebanon War 2006
March 18 Anti War Protest
Mayday 2006
Oaxaca Uprising
Refugee Week 2006
Rossport Solidarity
SOCPA
Transnational Day of Action Against Migration Controls
WSF 2006

South Coast Actions 2005

DSEi 2005
G8 2005
WTO Hong Kong 2005

South Coast Actions 2004

European Social Forum
FBI Server Seizure
May Day 2004
Venezuela

South Coast Actions 2003

Bush 2003
DSEi 2003
Evian G8
May Day 2003
No War F15
Saloniki Prisoner Support
Thessaloniki EU
WSIS 2003

IMCs


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech