Campaigner sentenced for pestering slaughterhouse

Chesterfield magistrates’ court heard, last month, how Michelle Oates-Orman, 40, of Clapham Road, Bedford, consistently phoned Leonard and Anne Boyd at Underedge Farm, Rowland, Bakewell, in March.

Becky Allsop, prosecuting, said: “Mrs Boyd received numerous phone calls to their farm between 9am and 1pm on March 5 asking to speak to someone about animal cruelty. The phone rang consistently and Mrs Boyd started lifting it up and putting it down.”

Mr Boyd took a call and stated Oates-Orman asked about the killing of horses, according to Mrs Allsop, and Oates-Orman made a reference to Mr Boyd being Irish which he took to be racially-motivated.

Greenpeace supporter Oates-Orman pleaded guilty to making distressing phone calls after the incident. Denny Lau, defending, said Oates-Orman called after seeing a Sky programme and video showing horses being slaughtered. Oates-Orman claimed she did not intend to be racist. Magistrates sentenced her to a six-month community order with 60 hours’ unpaid work and ordered her to pay £200 costs and a £60 victim surcharge. She also got a restraining order not to contact the Boyds.