2:58pm Friday 13th February 2009
By Ellie Simmonds
Animal rights campaigner Mel Broughton has today been sentenced to 10 years plotting firebomb attacks against Oxford University.
The jury at Oxford Crown Court convicted the 48-year-old of conspiracy to commit arson.
Broughton was charged following the discovery of firebombs found at Templeton College in February 2007 and an attack on The Queen's College sports pavillion the previous November.
Broughton has been the public face of the anti-vivisectionists' campaign against the construction of an animal experiments laboratory in South Parks Road.
He is the leader of campaign group Speak and had said he was only involved in non-violent protests.
It is the first conviction over the attacks on the University.
Broughton, of Semilong Road, Northampton, has just been sentenced to 10 years.
Judge Patrick Eccles said: “The firebombs that you planted at these two buildings were out there as part of a ruthless campaign to instil fear to all those connected to the laboratory, whether they were workers, managers, academics or tradesmen.
“A real and profound sense of fear has pervaded the lives of very many people here in Oxford as a result of the campaign by individuals who have no care for the feelings or sense of security of the innocent men or women who happened to be associated with the laboratory.
“Your involvement in this conspiracy has made a significant contribution to that fear.”
Mel Broughton was so committed to the cause of animal rights he had a vasectomy to allow him to devote his life to his cause.
He made the choice in his 20s after beginning animal rights work as a teenager in the 1970s.
As a 15-year-old he camped out in Scotland to guard osprey nests and later went on to work in animal sanctuaries.
In 1988 he was given a six-month suspended sentence for trying to free a dolphin from an amusement park in Morecambe, Lancashire.
In 1999 he was jailed for four years for conspiracy to cause an explosion likely to endanger life after a bomb was found in his car. He served two-and-a-half years and was freed in June 2002.
In 2003 he co-founded the SPEAC group, which later became Speak, and spearheaded opposition to the building of the laboratory for Oxford University.
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