THE abduction and

branding of undercover journalist Graham Hall has shocked Britain.

Speculation is rife that

Animal Liberation Front activists were behind the attack after Hall invest-igated and exposed them on national television.

Former ALF activist David Hammond was also

featured in the programme speaking out against the movement. Now he too has become a target. David Edwards reports.

DAVID Hammond is desperately trying to shake himself free of his previous life as an Animal Liberation Front activist.

The 45-year-old admits he has been no angel in the past and was once at the heart of the group which advocates law-breaking in pursuit of its aims.

Since 1994 Hammond has been trying to make amends for his years as an extremist.

The ALF tattoos he once proudly sported on his temples are now hidden beneath a hat while he waits to finish the course of surgery to remove them.

He steers clear of the old associates he would talk with about furthering the movement's goals by any means necessary.

But since renouncing the ALF on television, he has become a hate figure for many campaigners and is now in fear for his life.

Hammond's conversion to the animal rights cause began in the mid-Seventies in his native Worcestershire when he was handed a leaflet exposing animal experiments.

"At that time I didn't even know what vivisection was," he said. At the time Hammond, an ex-soldier, worked as a butcher and had barely heard of vegetarianism or animal rights.

"I investigated the leaflet because I don't take things at face value and I'm very open-minded. I found out the things it said were not only true but the leaflet didn't even portray the true horrors."

It was this open-mindedness which led him to join an animal welfare group and slowly convert to their philosophies.

He said: "Basically the group persuaded me to give up eating meat and become vegetarian and then, a while later, I realised the dairy industry was just as cruel and I decided to go vegan."

Hammond moved to Hassocks in the mid-Eighties and set up the Mid-Sussex Animal Reform Group which used peaceful methods to lobby politicians on hunting, vivisection and other welfare issues. During his time as an activist he started a job as a groundsman at Mowden School in Hove in October, 1985.

"I wanted to start a group where I could influence MPs and MEPs to change and reform laws in favour of animals," he said.

The group set up a patrol to catch cat thieves who were operating in the area and one of its first brushes with publicity came when it lobbied MP Tim Renton.

Hammond said: "He wasn't too pleased because we ambushed him going into a meeting with the media in tow. I presented him with a petition against hunting and a scientific report which showed hunting was cruel.

"I started going on a lot of demonstrations and I suspect became very demonstrative with my passion for animals and I became a leader.

"It was around this time I began to meet people who had different ideas about achieving things for animals and I admit, I became influenced by them."

"I was going to parliament regularly, lobbying politicians and up until that time I was convinced that the best way to help was through the correct channels.

"But other people were saying the political process didn't work. It was too slow and it wouldn't help animals today but in 100 years time."

Slowly Hammond was seduced by the militants' arguments and he changed tactics from letter-writing to direct action.

Soon he was breaking into a Nottingham laboratory which was being used by Boots to test drugs on animals. He said: "Animals were in there but we were caught by the police and fined. It was a stupid thing to do.

"I was also demonstrating a lot against Shamrock Farm."

During our interview he also hinted at other acts of liberation but refused to disclose details, arguing that to do so could lead to his arrest: "It involved liberating animals and that's all I'm willing to say.

"I've not been into using extreme tactics like using explosives or incendiaries, it's never been my bag."

With his conversion from welfarist to liberationist complete, Hammond became friendly with Robin Webb, the ALF's official spokesman.

Webb has been the group's Press officer since resigning from the ruling council of the RSPCA in 1991.

As the pair's friendship developed, Webb would often ring Hammond to discuss slogans which could be printed on ALF propaganda.

Hammond's secret life was thrown into the spotlight in August, 1994, when 21 police officers arrived at Mowden School and arrested the pair.

During the subsequent court case, it was heard how anti-terrorist squad officers swooped after they spotted Hammond passing a package to Webb which he then put into the boot of his car.

Prosecutors told Lewes Crown Court how police discovered a sawn-off shotgun and live ammunition, although three years later the case failed after officers refused to name an informer.

Today Hammond is adamant he never passed a shotgun or ammunition to Webb: "I was set-up and I proved that. It was a trap to get Robin Webb and I was used as a pawn."

It was while leaving court on a rainy August afternoon that Hammond first met the journalist Graham Hall.

Mr Hall is one of Britain's most respected investigative reporters.

Unknown to Hammond, Mr Hall's latest project was to infiltrate the ALF and he had travelled to Lewes with the express intention of making contact with the two cleared defendants.

Hammond said: "He followed me and introduced himself and when I found out who he was I wanted to talk to him because I admired such people. I didn't know from that moment he was secretly filming."

The expose which Mr Hall made for Channel 4 blew the lid off the ALF when it was screened last December.

Webb, the movement's respectable face who had just appeared on television debating with a Home Office Minister, was filmed showing how to make an incendiary device.

Another activist, Gaynor Ford, was filmed bragging about her attacks on scientists' cars.

The ease with which an outsider was able to infiltrate the movement does not surprise Hammond: "There was a certain amount of kudos from letting people know you were a member. Dare I say it. I think it is a shame that people tried to get off on ego trips.

"There's a lot of those people involved which I didn't like because it was unfair for the animals. You shouldn't be doing it for yourself but if you let people know you are a member they look up to you.

"Even welfarists and old ladies who are members of the RSPCA look up to the ALF."

Hammond was also featured in the programme as the first ALF member to talk openly about his time in the movement, which he roundly denounced.

Although he had embraced the group when he first joined,

Hammond had gradually grown disillusioned with its hardcore members.

He said: "They said they distanced themselves from any kind of violence and basically it's not true."

Fuelling his growing sense of unease, Hammond started to see pamphlets circulated at animal rights events which contained detailed instructions on how to make crude incendiary devices.

He also began to question some animal rights activists' motives when he suspected that part of a Sussex collection for Gill Phipps, the campaigner who was crushed by a lorry while demonstrating against live exports, had gone missing.

It was at some point in the mid-Nineties that Hammond realised the extremism he had dabbled in was harming rather than helping the cause and he agreed to speak to the programme's producers about the ALF's secret agenda.

The repercussions have been dramatic.

Last month Mr Hall was abducted and during a 12-hour ordeal had the letters ALF branded on to his back.

He later told journalists: "I thought I was being taken to my execution and I'm not ashamed to admit I was so frightened that I wet myself."

West Mercia Police are still investigating the incident and stressed they were keeping an "open mind" on whether animal rights activists were involved or not.

Hammond has also felt repercussions after speaking out on national television.

A hoax letter bomb was sent to his house earlier this year and, in the middle of our interview, we were interrupted by a telephone call with news that a mysterious package had been intercepted at a Royal Mail sorting office in Hassocks, where Hammond lives.

Bomb disposal experts were called in and part of the village was cordoned off. The package turned out to be spirulina tablets, a homeopathic food supplement derived from green algae, which Hammond has delivered.

But after the earlier incident when he received fake bomb-making equipment with a letter warning next time it would be for real, police were taking no chances.

Hammond said: "My immediate thoughts were for the people at the post office. I'll be writing to them to apologise for putting them in this position.

"I just have to accept it and get on with life. I'm holding my head up and getting my life back together. I'm not doing anything wrong but my past keeps haunting me."

On Monday, animal rights hardliners turned up at the school where he works demanding to see to him but were seen off by staff.

Despite the very real threat to his safety, Hammond is unrepentant for helping to expose Webb and other "extreme elements" within the ALF.

And despite his allusions to his own covert acts of liberation, he stresses he was never involved in hurting others: "Violence completely defeats the argument. There you are trying to save non-human animals and then you go harming human animals."

Hammond is as passionately committed to animal welfare as ever but is keen for people to know his crusade will never again involve law-breaking. He said: "I know people only have my word for it but I've been writing letters to MPs and working on a website and all the material is there to see.

"People could say it's a good cover but it's a hell of a lot of work. If they don't believe me, then there's nothing I can do about it and I condemn what happened to Graham Hall whole-heartedly."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.