Name: Paul Allman
Location: Stockport
Affiliations: Stockport Monitors, North American Animal Liberation Press Office, Animal Liberation Front
Banned from sabbing: On 8 December 2023, Paul Allman was handed a five-year criminal behaviour order (CBO) by Cheshire magistrates court after a number of incidents of anti-social behaviour when attending trail hunts in Cheshire and North Wales.
Under the terms of his CBO, Allman risks being imprisoned if he attends any hunt activities in Cheshire or North Wales or goes within one mile of the Cheshire, Cheshire Forest, or Wynnstay Hunt kennels. He's also banned from being in possession of any items that may be used to disrupt a hunt, such as chains, zip ties, a hunting horn, or a spray bottle. He is not allowed to wear a face covering in a vehicle and cannot associate at a hunt gathering or facilitate the transport of others to a hunt gathering.
The CBO came after repeated complaints to Cheshire Police from local hunts, who were being terrorised by Allman - a lesson in the value of perseverance.
Assault conviction: In August 2023 Allman was sentenced to 20 weeks in custody after violently attacking two members of the Wynnstay Hunt in Cuddlington, Cheshire as the head of a ‘baying mob.’ He broke the jaw of one man, and injured the eardrum of the other. One of the victims has since developed a nervous disposition around people he doesn’t know and has had to increase security measures at his family home amidst ‘fear of reprisals.’
This assault, which took place in November 2021, is part of a clear pattern of needless violence throughout Allman's adult life. District Judge John McGarva has labelled him a ‘danger to the public’. Meanwhile, Tim Bonner, the Chief Executive of the Countryside Alliance has described Allman as one of the hunt saboteurs’ most notorious henchmen and an example of regular appalling saboteur activity.
Threat to children and the elderly: In January 2022, Allman assaulted a group of three innocent bystanders, including a 15-year-old girl, near a hunt in Oakham, Rutland. According to the victims' reports, Allman pushed two of the trio around and punched the third, a 61-year-old man, in the face.
Leicestershire Police charged five men, including Allman, with “using threatening/abusive/insulting words/behaviour to cause harassment /alarm /distress”. In August 2022, the group was found guilty following a three-day trial at Loughborough Magistrates Court.
Intimidating women: In 2019, it was reported that Allman and four other masked men blocked the entrance to the home of a 31-year-old mother, Rebekah Uden, terrifying her in the process. Uden, who lives in Trefant, north Wales, was with her 10 and 13-year-old children at the time and had never been near a hunt in her life, she said.
‘'I'm not a fox hunter, I've never hunted in my life. But they're using fox hunting as a smokescreen to cause trouble. They're nothing more than thugs," said Uden.
When Uden confronted Allman and his gang, they swore at her and berated her until the police arrived. In the same year, Allman was convicted of assault against the Master of a Hunt, for an incident which took place in Cheshire in 2018.
Ties to terror groups: While in prison, Allman received support from the North American Animal Liberation Press Office, a pressure group with ties to the radical Animal Liberation Front (ALF) and Animal Rights Militia (ARM).
The Press Office encouraged followers to write to Allman while he was in prison to offer "love and solidarity" but warned them "not [to] write about illegal activities" lest they get into trouble.
The article ends by encouraging "LOVE AND RAGE TO ALL PRISONERS!"
The Press Office keeps a list of radical animal rights activists who are imprisoned and encourages followers to write to them. The office functions as the communications arm of the Animal Liberation Front, a group which in 2005 was included in a US Department of Homeland Security terrorism watchlist.
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