Three animal rights activists have been convicted of stealing three lambs belonging to King Charles from the Sandringham Estate. Rosa Sharkley and Sarah Foy, both aged 26, alongside Rose Patterson, 37, have each been handed 150 hours of unpaid work.
In a prepared statement submitted to police, they claimed they believed the King would have "consented to the lambs' rescue". While the trio insisted they had not behaved dishonestly, jurors at Norwich Crown Court delivered guilty verdicts for theft following three hours and 48 minutes of deliberation after the trial concluded.
Sentencing and details of the theft
Each defendant received a 12-month community order with 150 hours of unpaid work, and was instructed to pay £250 towards prosecution costs. Donning pink Animal Rising T-shirts, the three women took the sheep from a field at Appleton Farm in Norfolk on 24 May 2023.
A fourth person, referred to in court by Patterson solely as "Ben", drove the animals to a sanctuary in a van. This individual was not facing trial. The following day, the women made their way to Windsor Castle in a bid to inform police of what they had done. When armed officers positioned outside the royal residence refused to speak with them, they then went to Windsor police station.
Judge's remarks and convictions
Judge Anthony Bate remarked after Thursday's guilty verdicts: "I have in mind a community order and some unpaid work." The court reconvened on Thursday afternoon for the judge to hand down sentencing, after the defendants had met with a probation service worker and been assessed as suitable for unpaid work.
Delivering his sentence, the judge noted that the jury had concluded through their guilty verdicts that the defendants "did steal the sheep on the occasion in question, sincere though their motives were". He described 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
Emotional scenes unfolded as supporters in the public gallery embraced the defendants as they left the courtroom following the earlier guilty verdicts. Sharkey, from Brighton; Foy, from Alfreton, Derbyshire; and Patterson, who stated she resides in London; had all pleaded not guilty to the theft of the sheep.
Dingle Clark, prosecuting, argued in his closing remarks it was an "obvious nonsense that the owner would have consented" to the lambs being taken. 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."
The court was told that all three women possessed previous criminal convictions, with Patterson holding three public order-related offences, Foy with two convictions, and Sharkey with six convictions, one of which arose from a demonstration at the Grand National meeting at Aintree.
Animal Rising director Patterson, one of the accused, responded following the guilty verdicts, declaring: "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."
