In the short five months since we launched, Behind the Masks has revealed some frightening truths about hunt saboteurs’ psychology and the motivations behind their often violent and unlawful behaviour. They gather across the country and come from all different walks of life but one common thread seems to run throughout all sabouteur groups: extremism.
Left to fester in the echo chambers of social media this extremism frequently morphs into paranoia, conspiracy theories, and violent intent.
Last week the UK Government introduced a new legal definition for extremism, in the wake of a rise in anti-democratic behaviour on both sides of the political spectrum. Communities Secretary Michael Gove told the Commons on Thursday that extremism is:
"The promotion or advancement of an ideology based on violence, hatred or intolerance" that aims to "negate or destroy the fundamental rights and freedoms of others", or "undermine, overturn or replace the UK's system of liberal parliamentary democracy and democratic rights,” also including those who "intentionally create a permissive environment for others to achieve" either of those aims.
Our investigations into the sab underworld have shown multiple instances of ideology based on “violence, hatred or intolerance”. This is directed not only at hunt supporters but frequently undermines the values and institutions that most British people hold dear.
Anti-natalism
One of the most extreme viewpoints expressed by sabs is ‘Anti-natalism’. This is the belief that it is morally wrong for human beings to have children, largely because of environmental concerns. The ideology varies by degrees: China’s one-child policy is considered by many an ‘anti-natal’ policy, whilst extreme anti-natalists simply believe the world would be better off without any sentient life whatsoever.
Convicted criminal sab Gemma Barnes is a vehement proponent of anti-natalism, taking this crackpot philosophical belief to new extremes.
For Barnes, procreating is equivalent to "premeditated murder", since all children will one day die. She compares having children to the Nazi gas chambers and wonders why it feels as if she is “in a lunatic asylum”. Go figure.
A recent video satirising "natalists" shared to her Facebook - bearing the caption “Carnist breeder speaking his truth. To think this is the mindset of the vast majority of humans on earth“ - showcases Barnes’ ardent belief in anti-natalism, which she ties to ’militant veganism’ and her activities as a hunt saboteur.
Barnes’ belief in anti-natalism borders on a worrying desire to simply remove people from the world – in effect, mass genocide.
Anti-work
While the majority of sabs are workshy at best, some are ideologically opposed to the very idea of employment. Many fund their lifestyles with donations via platforms like ‘Buy Me A Coffee’; swindling well-meaning members of the public who often know little about these sabs’ backgrounds, personalities, and crimes.
Sabs like Cathy Scott and Doug Maw have been documented crowdfunding their lifestyles, even when faced with criminal charges. Maw has a GoFundMe page to support his civil case against Sussex Police after they arrested him for criminal damages in February 2023. A month after launching his appeal, it’s raised barely a quarter of its stated target.
Gemma Barnes, meanwhile, goes one step further, trumpeting her anti-work mindset as some kind of twisted moral philosophy. She sponges off other (presumably hardworking) vegans to fund her lifestyle, as well as her crusade against the Norfolk police.
ACAB: All Cops Are B******s
Gemma Barnes’ wisdom is not limited to ending all human life and living off handouts. She also holds a vendetta against the UK’s police. Perhaps this has something to do with her routine efforts to break the law, with charges including theft, harassment, and criminal damage.
ACAB is a registered hate symbol according to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). Barnes goes out of her way to harass and intimidate police in the Norwich area, taking ACAB as another of her life mantras, according to her Instagram bio.
Barnes' YouTube account is a cesspit of abuse against our hardworking police officers. Unemployed and without a shred of motivation to look for work, Barnes spends much of her ample free time filming herself harassing coppers. In May 2023, she was charged with intimidating two police officers at Norwich livestock market.
Barnes’ behaviour looks set to become even more violent as she associates online with the violent offender Paul Allman. Their comments to one another about their respective court cases attract ‘love’ and ‘like’ reactions from likeminded sabs.
Neal Buckoke, from Dorchester, is similarly vocal in his criticism of the police. As with Barnes, Buckoke’s Facebook is littered with abuse towards officers and support for criminals. According to Buckoke, the police are not there to protect the public but to follow the orders of "dangerous psychopaths".
Anti-vaccination
Alongside the workshy and the antinatalists, the broad church of hunt saboteurs finds room in its flock for the anti-vaxxers as well.
Alongside a clear hatred for the police, Neal Buckoke is a self-professed anti-establishment conspiracy theorist. His fringe beliefs on this came out strongly during the COVID-19 pandemic, when he referred to the government’s vaccination program as “coercion” and proclaimed himself “proudly unpoisoned”.
These beliefs have no basis in science and demonstrate Buckoke’s profound disdain for the UK’s democracy and the National Health Service. His behaviour during the pandemic – refusing to get vaccinated – likely undermined the UK’s national recovery and put himself and others at greater risk of the disease.
In a similar vein, Manuela Shardana, a sab from Cheshire, compared Italy’s COVID-19 greenpass measure for tourists to the Nazis, the holocaust, and fascism. This is a deeply disrespectful comparison that exhibits both delusion and extremism in equal measure.
‘Militant Veganism’
Many of sabs' extreme views are either informed by or connected to an extreme form of veganism, abrasively termed ‘militant veganism’. This philosophy espouses the use of force and even violence to promote a vegan lifestyle and attack people and companies that use animals.
Dimitri and Emma Christoforakis are two self-professed militant vegans. The threatening message on Dimitri’s Facebook profile - “Go Vegan And Nobody Gets Hurt” - clearly shows a willingness to use violence and incite terror to achieve their aim of ‘protecting animals’.
This desire to protect animals, however, does not extend to Homo Sapiens. Video footage of the North Dorset Hunt Sabs shows Dimitri hitting a hunt supporter who has stopped him for trespassing.
Likewise in 2021, Alexandra Dennis, another North Dorset sab, was filmed hitting an 82-year-old former hunt chairman with her camera:
Dennis was fined for the assault in 2023 - a frankly light punishment for such an ideologically motivated spate of violence.
The most infamous militant vegan in sab circles is undoubtedly Paul Allman. In 2021, during a trail hunt by the Wynnstay in Cheshire, Allman of the Stockport Monitors attacked Hugh Hutchinson Smith and James Thompson as they were trying to open a gate. Hutchinson Smith suffered an injured eardrum, while Thompson sustained a broken jaw which required surgery.
Mr Thompson has since developed a nervous disposition around people he doesn’t know and has felt compelled to increase security measures at his family home amidst ‘fear of reprisals.’
Sentencing Allman to 20 weeks in custody, District Judge John McGarva labelled him a ‘danger to the public’. The notorious sab had previously received a suspended sentence for attacking a 15-year-old girl at the Cottesmore Hunt in Oakham, Leicestershire.
These are only a handful from a long list. Sabs will no doubt respond with the usual cries that hunt supporters are “bloodjunkies” and “violent scum” for practicing trail hunting. The hypocrisy is absurd.
The evidence is right before us. Large groups of hunt saboteurs are hell-bent on stirring violence and instilling fear. They pursue an ideology of violence and hatred, infringing on the civil liberties of others in the process.
More frighteningly still, this form of violent ideological extremism often boils over into acts of terror. Sabs are no exception.
Extremism / Terrorism
In December 1999, David Blenkinsop – a violent, criminal sab – launched a concerted terror campaign against Huntingdon Life Sciences (HLS) in Cambridgeshire, as part of the Animal Liberation Front.
Blenkinsop’s efforts culminated in three individuals, including himself, attacking HLS managing director Brian Cass with staves and pickaxe handles. They left a 7cm head wound in Mr Cass’ head, nearly killing the researcher.
Blenkinsop was found guilty of ‘unlawful wounding’. This was clearly an act of terror. Judge Neil McKittrick described this as a wicked act against a defenceless man and said it had nothing to do with legitimate protest: "The purpose of your enterprise was to cause hurt and injury to Mr Cass. It was made worse by the use of weapons and three people swinging clubs against a defenceless man."
A neighbour who chased the attackers from the scene was also sprayed in the face with CS gas.
In May 2000, Blenkinsop blew up a delivery lorry at Mutchmeats processing plant in Newclose lane, Witney, with a home-made bomb. Oxford Crown Court was informed that he had used plastic bottles, petrol, and fireworks to make the device along with eight others that were found under other trucks at the time. Fortunately, they failed to ignite due to rain. The cost of the attack was estimated at £45,000.
In August 2000, five cars belonging to HLS employees living in Godmanchester, Cambridgeshire, were destroyed with identical devices. Blenkinsop admitted to constructing the bombs that destroyed three of the cars – a clear act of terrorism. He was jailed in December 2002 for five and a half years, while already serving four and a half years for the attack on Mr. Cass.
Now, Blenkinsop walks free, routinely trespassing and harassing hunts around the country. Nor is he alone. His fellow Animal Liberation Front extremist Mel Broughton has also been spotted threatening hunts in Northamptonshire.
Broughton is a convicted animal rights terrorist who was sentenced to four years in prison in 1998 for having a firebomb in his car.
In 2009, he was convicted with conspiracy to commit arson after blowing up a cricket pavilion at Queen's college Oxford and planting multiple other bombs elsewhere around the University which, fortunately, did not detonate.
Broughton was jailed for 10 years in 2010. On Monday 18 March, a jury at Cambridge Crown Court found both Broughton and Blenkinsop not guilty of waging "psychological warfare" against businessman Russel Morgan, including allegedly confronting him in a pub in front of his eight-year-old son. The jury had not been informed of either defendant's criminal history.
Despite his convictions, in February 2024, the Mirror newspaper thought it appropriate to interview Broughton for their one sided documentary about the ‘violent reality of fox-hunting'.
But this is hardly surprising when Channel 4 – a publicly owned broadcaster - have given a platform to Caroline Hutt, a hunt saboteur supporter who has called Iraqis “vile vile people” and referred to the nation of South Africa as a “tinpot shithole”.
Where will this end?
It is high time that both the public and the government woke up to who hunt saboteurs really are. Innocent people, who want to legally keep the British tradition of hunting alive, face increasing danger every time they go out to ride or show support. Violence and attacks are becoming more frequent, not to mention the underhand methods of threatening local businesses and online intimidation.
The sabs cited above are just a handful of the hundreds of dangerous individuals whose warped ideologies could boil over into terrorism – just like Blenkinsop and Broughton.
Now that the government has adjusted their definition for extremism, we urge them to take note of the hateful, anti-establishment, and at times violent ideologies of hunt saboteur organisations, and to realise the existential threat they pose to the Great British countryside.