FIVE animals rights activists orchestrated an international campaign of blackmail against companies who supplied Huntingdon Life Sciences in an attempt to close the laboratory down, Winchester Crown Court heard today.

The hierarchy of the group called Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) used threats such as claiming managers of the companies were paedophiles, hoax bombs parcels, criminal damage and threatening telephone calls to force them to cut links with the animal testing company.

The aim was to target suppliers or any company with a secondary link with Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS) based in Cambridge.

Winchester Crown Court heard that Hampshire woman Heather Nicholson, 41, Trevor Holmes, 51, Gerrah Selby, 20, Daniel Wadham, 21 and Gavin Medd-Hall, 45 were all closely involved in the campaign from 2001 until 2007 that targeted companies in Britain and Europe.

Three others members Gregg Avery, Natasha Avery and Daniel Amos have pleaded guilty to conspiracy to blackmail, the court heard.

One of the features of intimidation included sending used sanitary towels in the post saying it was contaminated with the Aids virus and personal campaigns against the management of companies including daubing roads outside their homes with words like "Puppy Killer".

Michael Bowes QC, prosecuting told the jury: "All of these features, the prosecution submit, had nothing to do with the lawful expression or freedom of speech and everything to do with blackmail and unwarranted demands with menaces."

The court heard Nicholson, from Eversley, was a founder member of SHAC who managed the "menacing" campaigns against the firms who were named on the group's website.

The alleged blackmail would only stop when they put out a "capitulation statement" to SHAC saying they would not supply HLS, who conduct animal testing for the pharmaceutical industry, the court was told.

Medd-Hall, from Croydon, south London, was a computer and research expert high up in SHAC who uncovered company links with HLS.

Wadham, from Bromley in Kent, joined SHAC in 2005 and was in regular attendance at demonstrations against the firms and HLS.

Selby, from Chiswick in London, also was a regular activist at demonstrations in the UK and Europe, including a violent demo in Paris.

Holmes, from Newcastle upon Tyne, was a senior member of SHAC who took part in criminal damage in the UK.

All five deny conspiracy to blackmail.

Mr Bowes showed the jury video footage shot by the activists who went into one company called Amari Plastics in 2003.

The footage showed the campaigners accusing the company of making dissection boards for HLS and warning them that they would be bombarded with emails.

Then a woman on the film says of HLS: "They are a vile company and it's quite disgusting you have anything to do with them."

The film then shows the same female voice telling staff they will target their customers and tell them "what sort of company you are".

The firm tells the activists they have not dealt with HLS for a year and the campaigners ask for a statement to put on their website.

Mr Bowes said that the dark activities of SHAC and the defendants were badged under names like the Animal Liberation Front or the Animal Rights Militia.

Mr Bowes said there were direct email links between these organisations and SHAC, including a website called Bite Back which posted the campaigns against companies and individuals on it.

Often messages were sent by encrypted email but these had now been read, the jury heard. Other information was discovered by using covert surveillance.

Mr Bowes said a managing director of a company called Lancer received threatening letters, one of which said at the end: "We will attack your property and your family" if it did not end dealings with HLS.

Mr Bowes said receiving these letters "caused considerable distress and concern to those individuals and their families".

"That provides a clear example of the degree of control exercised by the defendants of their activists through the medium of the SHAC website," he explained.

Other companies who had suspected dealings with HLS received hand-written notes that were shown on screens in the court. One said: "Your days are numbered animal abuser. Time running out".

Others were called "filthy, sick, evil perverted scum."

One manager of a targeted company, Stephen Lightfoot, was sent a letter threatening someone would stab him with an HIV infected needle.

Letters were also sent to neighbours near his home in West Sussex falsely accusing him of being a convicted paedophile, Mr Bowes said.

The barrister said the campaign was organised with "almost military precision."

Proceeding