Sunday Express, 9 April 1995

It is ironic in a country which has abolished the death penalty that you have effectively signed your own death warrant.
Sinister: A threat thought to be from animal rights activists

By Oonagh Blackman
Crime Correspondent

Scotland Yard is investigating a series of death threats to one of Britain's most senior judges.

Special Branch detectives fear animal rights terrorists are behind the warning letters to High Court judge Sir Stephen Mitchell, 53.

One letter said: "It is ironic in a country which has abolished the death penalty that you have effectively signed your own death warrant."

Police are trying to discover whether the typewritten letters sent last month are linked to a court case last year when Sir Stephen jailed Animal Liberation Front ringleader Keith Mann for 14 years.

Mann, an expert bombmaker, waged a four-year sabotage campaign against the meat and poultry industry.

He was described by the judge as "dangerous and fanatical" using tactics that "bore the hallmarks of terrorism". As Mann was sentenced, supporters in the Old Bailey's public gallery shouted obscenities at Sir Stephen.

Scotland Yard has given details of the threats to the Lord Chancellor's Department, the Government body in charge of appointing judges and running British courts. The judge's local police have also been put on alert.

The letters were posted to Sir Stephen at the Old Bailey from the Home Counties and forwarded to him in Sheffield, where he has been sitting at the Crown Court. The documents will be sent to the police forensic science laboratory for tests.

Sir Stephen has presided over high-profile trials such as that of Freddie Foreman, sentenced to nine years for the [pounds sterling] 6 million Security Express robbery. He also sentenced IRA bomber Sean McNully to 25 years for planting three bombs in Tyne and Wear. But police believe Mann's supporters are behind the threats.

• Wife-killer has his eight-year sentence reduced to six. (Argus, 17 December 1994.)
• Drunken joyrider killed the father and mother of four-year old boy, gets eight years. (Daily Mail, 22 December 1994.)
• Man breaks into woman's home - rapes her twice - gets nine years. (Argus, 13 December 1994.)
• Compassionate vegan charged with possession of explosive substances under suspicious circumstances, attempted incitement, criminal damage to three meat-trucks and escape from custody, 19 December 1994 gets fourteen years.

Keith Mann adheres to the ALF policy of non-violence to all living things. He puts life before property. Society puts property before life. A Campaign has been set up to get his sentence reduced: Justice for Keith Mann.

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