Eight animal rights activists co-ordinated an international, six-year blackmail campaign in an attempt to shut down Huntingdon Life Sciences, a court heard yesterday.

Threatening letters, hoax bombs and sanitary towels allegedly contaminated with HIV were sent to companies that did business with the Cambridgeshire-based research laboratory in an attempt to create a “climate of fear” that would isolate HLS and force it to shut.

In a campaign that was often carried out in the name of the Animal Liberation Front and orchestrated with “almost military precision,” the homes and vehicles of targets were vandalised and sprayed with slogans, while their neighbours were sent anonymous letters warning them that they lived close to a paedophile.

Michael Bowes, QC, for the prosecution, told the jury at Winchester Crown Court that companies across Europe and their employees were targeted after their details appeared on the website of Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC).

The court heard that SHAC was founded in 1999 by Gregg Avery, 40, along with Heather Nicholson, 41, who was then his wife, and Natasha Dellamagne [now Avery], 39, whom he has since married.

Gregg and Natasha Avery, along with fellow activist Daniel Amos, 21, have pleaded guilty to conspiracy to blackmail. Ms Nicholson, who has been a “driving force” in SHAC, denies the charge.

Gavin Medd-Hall, 45, Daniel Wadham, 21, Gerrah Selby, 20, and Trevor Holmes, 51, who were all described as members of the SHAC hierarchy, have also pleaded not guilty.

As part of their campaign, SHAC activists posed as HLS staff and compiled spreadsheets on people they suspected of working with the animal- testing laboratory, including details such as whether they had children and ease of access to their property. They then put the details on their website.

Action against a targeted company would stop only once it notified SHAC formally that it had severed its ties with HLS. Often the threat of being placed on SHAC’s website was enough to force capitulation, “such was the climate of fear that SHAC had fostered over a number of years”, Mr Bowes said.

He told the jury that many of the darker, illegal elements of the campaign were carried out in the name of the ALF or a group calling itself the “Animal Rights Militia”.

Companies that were targeted repeatedly by SHAC included Lancer UK, which supplied decontamination washing machines to HLS.

The managing director received a letter in December 2006 that threatened: “We will attack your property, your family or you, whichever we see fit . . . The screams of the animals are in our heads. We will not fail them. You will pay for their agony.”

Lancer UK agreed to SHAC’s demands soon after, and the company’s “capitulation statement” joined a list of others on SHAC’s website.

The targeting of Lancer UK then ceased, demonstrating what Mr Bowes said was the “degree of control over their activists” that the conspirators had.

Another victim, Stephen Lightfoot, managing director of the pharmaceutical company Daiichi-Sankyo, received night visits to his home, silent phone calls, soiled sanitary towels and a series of anonymous letters. In one he was told: “The animal rights militia does not tolerate filthy, sick, evil, perverted scum like you.” Another letter, allegedly from an HIV-positive drug user, said: “I get through a lot of needles . . . Don’t make me come over one day and accidentally stab you.”

Mr Bowes said: “SHAC itself is not an illegal organisation. However, the methods used by some of its activists are illegal.

“People are entitled to hold strong views and freedom of speech is one of our fundamental liberties. What people are not entitled to do is menace others to make them comply with their demands.”

The trial continues.

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