The trial for 3 the SHAC volunteers ended quietly yesterday leaving HLS completely gutted. HLS had hoped to make a show trial out of the testimonies of its pathetic employees and then claim victory in what was hoped to excessively long sentencing. Much to the lab’s dismay, the three campaigners took a deal — pleading guilty to the charge of Conspiracy to Blackmail, and returned to custody to await the result of the trail of the rest of the accused.

This means the three only have to serve eight years in jail, and taking tagging and the time they spent on remand over a year ago into account, they could all be out in a little over five years time. Not bad, considering the police (who wasted millions of pounds and countless hours of work on this pitiful case) and HLS had been pushing for, and banking on, custodial sentences of not less than 6 years.