Affiliations: Northants Sabs, Hertfordshire Sabs, Camp Beagle, MBR Beagles
Location: Northamptonshire
Mel Broughton (also known as Mel Brown) is a veteran hunt sab and convicted bomb maker. In 2020 he was released from prison, having been incarcerated since July 2010 for conspiracy to commit arson. Broughton placed firebomb devices under a portable cabin at Templeton College and a cricket pavilion at Queen’s College, Oxford. The explosion at the pavilion caused damage valued at £14,000, but the other bombs failed to detonate. Broughton spearheaded the animal welfare group SPEAK, and had been protesting against the building of an animal testing laboratory at Oxford during this time.
Broughton was remanded in prison again in November 2022 for charges related to his campaign against MBR Acres, a medical research facility in Cambridgeshire that carries out animal testing. In August 2021, the BBC reported that 15 members of the MBR Beagles campaign had been arrested after the research firm was granted a court order against "vicious" harassment by the campaigners.
Shockingly, in March 2024, Broughton was acquitted by Cambridge High Court after prosecutors alleged that he and fellow sab David Blenkinsop had waged "psychological warfare" against MBR contractor Russell Morgan.
Mr Morgan, whose company Impex was hired to transport animals to and from MBR Acres, said he was subject to a systematic campaign of abuse from Broughton and co., including being called a "puppy killer" at a pub in front of his eight-year-old son.
Morgan's wife, Amy, said their son had been "terrified" by Broughton's protests, describing how "he doesn’t even want to play in the garden because he’s scared of people at the bottom of the driveway or bottom of the garden. He’s just become a scared little boy and he was never like that.”
Broughton is openly assisted and supported by the Animal Liberation Front, a group on the FBI watchlist for its history of extremism and ecoterrorism. Like other hunt saboteur groups, the ALF encouraged individuals to write to Broughton in prison, without mentioning anything illegal, in case they get caught – very upstanding indeed.
Broughton is a member of the saboteur old guard, with over 40 years sabbing and animal rights experience. He also appears to have friends in high places, featuring prominently in a December 2024 live stream by BBC presenter Chris Packham and his step-daughter Meghan McCubbin as they joined members of the Northants Hunt Sabs to pester the Cottesmore Hunt.
At one point in the 3-hour video Packham addresses the camera to talk about the alleged violence perpetrated against hunt sabs, while bomb maker Broughton is still on screen. How ironic.
Terrifyingly, Broughton can still be spotted sabbing around rural Northamptonshire. In February 2025, members of the Cottesmore Hunt reported that Broughton was driving a car with an expired MOT.
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