A veteran animal rights activist who was allegedly trespassing on a Levin chicken farm has had a ban on going anywhere in town overturned by the High Court.
Jasmine Elizabeth Gillespie-Gray is charged with being in an enclosed yard and unlawfully being in a building at Henry's Poultry Processing Plant with video and camera equipment in mid-December.
She was said to have climbed over a fence intending to film the condition of hens at the premises.
When the owners arrived, Gillespie-Gray climbed back over the fence, leaving behind some camera equipment which is now in police hands.
At a bail hearing in the district court Gillespie-Gray was banned from the whole of Levin township, except when passing through.
Amending her bail conditions, Justice Ron Young said in the High Court at Palmerston North that such a restriction was "far too wide."
"It is difficult to see why this restriction need include the whole of Levin," he said.
Amending her bail conditions, the judge said that they only needed to prohibit her from going to Henry's plant in Hamaira Rd.
He said that there was, however, nothing to stop Gillespie-Gray from lawfully protesting outside the premises.
"Of course, by making that observation I am not inviting her to do so, but I simply record that it would not be unlawful and could not sensibly be restricted by bail terms."
Last week (February 21) in the Levin District Court egg and poultry processor Graham Joseph Henry was fined more than $16,000 for operating without a registered risk management programme under the Animal Products Act.
NZPA
source: newshub archive
