Three animal rights campaigners convicted of stealing three lambs from the King's Sandringham Estate have each been ordered to complete 150 hours of unpaid work.
Rosa Sharkey and Sarah Foy, both 26, alongside Rose Patterson, 37, told police in a prepared statement that they believed Charles "would have consented to the lambs' rescue". They maintained they hadn't behaved dishonestly, however jurors convicted them of theft after a trial and three hours and 48 minutes of deliberations at Norwich Crown Court.
Community orders handed down
Each received 12-month community orders with 150 hours of unpaid work, and were instructed to contribute £250 towards prosecution costs. The three wore pink Animal Rising T-shirts when they removed the sheep from a field at Appleton Farm in Norfolk on 24 May 2023.
The creatures were transported to a sanctuary in a van by a fourth individual, who wasn't on trial and was identified in court by Patterson simply as "Ben". The day after, the three women travelled to Windsor Castle attempting to inform police there about their actions. They attended Windsor police station after armed officers stationed outside the royal residence wouldn't engage with them.
Judge's remarks on sentencing
Judge Anthony Bate stated following Thursday's guilty verdicts: "I have in mind a community order and some unpaid work." The court reconvened on Thursday afternoon for sentencing, following assessments by probation service staff who deemed all defendants appropriate candidates for community service.
Delivering his sentence, the judge noted that the jury's guilty verdicts established the defendants "did steal the sheep on the occasion in question, sincere though their motives were". He characterised the three women as "to various degrees seasoned campaigners".
"They are all, may I say so, intelligent and capable women who can make a valuable contribution to society through these means (the unpaid work)," he said.
Prosecution and reaction
Supporters in the public gallery embraced the defendants as they departed the courtroom following the earlier guilty verdicts. Sharkey, from Brighton; Foy, from Alfreton, Derbyshire; and Patterson, who stated she resides in London; had all denied the theft charges.
In his closing remarks, prosecutor Dingle Clark argued it was an "obvious nonsense that the owner would have consented" to the lambs being removed. He said: "The prosecution say this was plainly dishonest. The reason why it was dishonest is they were taking something which didn't belong to them. They had to put a door over a fence and they did it... to publicise their views."
He revealed that all three women had prior criminal records, with Patterson carrying three convictions linked to public order offences, Foy with two convictions, and Sharkey with six convictions, one of which stemmed from a protest at the Grand National meeting at Aintree.
Animal Rising director Patterson, one of the defendants, spoke out following the guilty verdict: "We are, of course, disappointed by the verdict today, but it doesn't change how I feel about rescuing Sammy, Sunny and Sooty. We rescued them because we believed they deserved the chance of a long life, rather than having their lives cut short simply because they were being farmed for food. I don't regret for a moment giving them that chance."
