Nine people handed community service orders over Grand National protests

Nine people have been handed community service orders after pleading guilty to public nuisance as part of animal rights protests that attempted to stop the 2023 Grand National.

The orders were handed out by Liverpool Crown Court on Friday, with the defendants to undertake between 110 and 200 hours of mandatory community service each and ordered to pay £133 each in court costs. One defendant was given a nine-week custodial sentence, suspended for six months.

Police arrested 118 people as part of disruption to the 2023 Grand National, with protesters causing a 14-minute delay to proceedings when people attempted to glue themselves to fences and others tried to enter the track by climbing the perimeter fence at Aintree. The delayed race was won by Corach Rambler.

They are not the first charges following the disrupted National. Ten people had been charged with wilful obstruction of a public highway after blocking roads close to Aintree, with two protesters fined last May.

Animal rights protesters did not stop their action at the Grand National and attempted to disrupt the Derby later that year. 

Ben Newman, who co-founded the Animal Rising protest group, invaded the track at Epsom and received a suspended two-month prison sentence, in addition to a £10,000 fine, for breaching the Jockey Club's High Court injunction against protesters disrupting the race.

The Jockey Club has since extended its injunction aimed at stopping protesters at Epsom following a High Court ruling last summer.

Read more here

118 arrested as 2023 Grand National delayed after animal rights protesters storm track at Aintree 

'The people were defending their race' - racegoers praised after helping to stop Grand National protesters   

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