Activists found guilty of theft of King's lambs

Three animal rights activists have been found guilty of stealing three lambs from the King's Sandringham Estate.

Throughout a three-day trial, Rosa Sharkey, 26, Sarah Foy, 26, and Rose Patterson, 37, insisted they rescued the animals in 2023.

The members of campaign group Animal Rising also said they believed the King "would have consented to their rescue" due to being an "environmentalist".

But the jury of five men and seven women at Norwich Crown Court unanimously found all three guilty of theft. They were each sentenced to a 12-month community order of 150 hours of unpaid work, and they must each pay £250 towards prosecution costs.

Giving his verdict, judge Anthony Bate said their actions highlighted "sensitive and important matters of public interest".

He added that the defendants were all "intelligent and capable women who can make a valuable contribution to society".

After the hearing, Patterson, director of Animal Rising, said: "We are of course disappointed by the verdict today, but it doesn't change how I feel about rescuing Sammy, Sunny and Sooty."

The theft took place on 23 May 2023, when the trio spent hours in a field at Appleton Farm in Sandringham, to allow the sheep to become acquainted to them.

The court heard they then took three lambs and put them into a van after they came close, and they were driven off to an unknown animal sanctuary.

The following day, the women travelled to Windsor Castle, where they attempted to alert authorities to what they called a "rescue" of the lambs.

They later handed themselves in to Windsor Police Station and were charged with theft.

Earlier in the hearing on Thursday, defence barrister Sarah-Jane Ewart, representing Sharkey, insisted the trio had acted "honestly" throughout.

She highlighted their attempt to alert the authorities at Windsor as an example.

In the trial, all three defendants detailed how their personal experiences had led them to become involved in animal rights activism, due to concerns about welfare and the environmental impact of agriculture.

The lambs have never been recovered by the authorities but remained alive and well at an unknown sanctuary, the court heard.

After the verdict, Patterson said the trio "rescued them because we believed they deserved the chance of a long life", adding: "I don't regret for a moment giving them that chance."

Sharkey added: "This isn't the verdict we hoped for, but the most important thing to me is that those three lambs were saved and are now living safely and happily."

The three defendants were Foy, of North Street, Alfreton, Derbyshire; Patterson, of Homerton High Street, London; and Sharkey, previously of Mayville Estate, London, but she told the court she now lived in Brighton.

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