Animal rights terrorists who horrified the nation by stealing the remains of a Lichfield pensioner from a Yoxall graveyard are due to be sentenced today. Jon Ablewhite, John Smith, Kerry Whitburn and Josephine Mayo, who remorsely waged a six-year hate campaign against Darley Oaks Farm in Newchurch, near Lichfield, are due back before judges today to receive sentence for their role in a drawn out campaign of terror toward owners and workers at the farm, which bred guinea pigs for medical research. Concerns that the quartet could have struck a deal with police for shorter sentences in return for information about the whereabouts of the pensioner's body have been met with anger. Police recovered the body of the pensioner from Cannock Chase last Wednesday after an 18 month search. The investigation into the grave robbery is thought to have cost over a £1 million. The group's protracted vendetta of violence and intimidation, which included bomb hoaxes, arson attacks and death threats against anybody involved with the farm, culminated in the theft of the remains of 82-year-old Gladys Hammond from her grave in nearby Yoxall in October 2004. Staffordshire Police spent an estimated £2.25 million protecting owners of Darley Oakes Farm from the protesters during the terror campaign. The group also targeted villagers who worked at the farm. Falsely branding one a paedophile in a sickening smear campaign and intimidating other with threats of letter bombs. The snatching of the remains of the pensioner in October 2004 was their grisly coup-de-grace. The attacks ceased only after the Halls agreed to stop breeding the guinea pigs last August. The gang admitted conspiracy to blackmail the farm company, David Hall and Partners, at Nottingham Crown Court last month. Judge Michael Pert, QC, recommended that Ablewhite, Smith and Whitburn serve 12 years each in jail, and Mayo six. The judge described them as 'determined and cold-blooded defenders of their perceived cause'. Staffordshire Police said all four could receive lighter sentences if they revealed where the pensioner's remains were. Talk of a deal has prompted anger from Lichfield MP Michael Fabricant. He said: "I hope the judge will not be tempted to give those people, who have caused so much misery to so many of my constituents for so many years, a lenient sentence. "That would not be justice." Mrs Hammond's grave at St Peter's churchyard in Yoxall was desecrated and her remains stolen in the early hours of October 6 in 2004. Her grave was targeted because her daughter, Margaret, is married to farm owner Christopher Hall, who ran David Hall and Partners with his brother John. Police said yesterday, Wednesday that DNA test results have confirmed remains recovered near the German War Cemetery at Cannock Chase on May 3 were those of Mrs Hammond. Mrs Hammond's family have been informed and arrangements will now be made for her re-burial at St Peter's Church in Yoxall. Full report - see pages 4 and 5. | 
