Youtube animal rights activist banned from farms

A YOUTUBE animal rights protester has been banned from going anywhere near farms where there is livestock.

Sebastian Brown, 18, broke into farms, tampered with locks and damaged CCTV equipment before recording on video the animals’ living conditions, which he then posted on Youtube.

He admitted three offences of criminal damage at farms in Essex and Suffolk at Ipswich Crown Court.

Brown, a student, was ordered to do 240 hours’ unpaid work and was banned for three years from “loitering near livestock and poultry farms” under a criminal anti-social behaviour order.

Brown, of Colchester, broke into chicken houses at a farm in Little Totham, Essex, as well as two farms in north Suffolk, the court heard. He admitted three offences of criminal damage in September last year.

Passing sentence, Judge Rupert Overbury told him: “You pleaded guilty to these three offences committed by you in the mistaken belief as a 17-yearold that you were acting for the greater good.

“You have a passion and you are perfectly entitled to express your views about animal welfare, but what you mustn’t do is do it in a criminal way.

“You can protest, you can lobby, you can join action groups to your heart’s content but you can’t break into people’s property and do damage,” said the judge.

After Brown was arrested, police found a notebook in his bedroom containing the names of farms he had been to and others he planned to visit.