A MILITANT vegan has been given a two-year restraining order following a series of death threats to a Devon-based sheep farmer and his family.

Farmer John Wood, who created the ‘Meat and Greet British Farming' Facebook page last year to educate the public on farming practices and to showcase the best of British agriculture, was targeted for eight months by 37-year-old vegan activist Emma Christoforakis, from Dorset.

Mr Wood and his wife Karen had to be briefed by counter terror police following fears that vegans had planted bombs under his tractors.

Mrs Christoforakis confronted the Woods on their farm in Wimborne Minster, calling them 'murderers', and also targeted them at Bournemouth farming events, sending violent threats to the whole family including their two children, aged 12 and 15.

Mr Wood , who was warned by police of the violent history of groups such as the international Animal Liberation Front (ALF) that engages in 'direct action' in pursuit of animal rights, told reporters: “It's not been an easy 18 months. When you have counter terror police warning you what could happen and what has happened in the past, it's scary. In 2019, it should not be happening.

'When you're looking under your tractors in the morning for bombs, nobody should be living like that. I don't say to anybody, 'If you don't eat meat, you're scum'. If I did that, I'd be branded a lunatic – these people go out regularly and do the opposite, it's not acceptable,” he stressed.

Mr Wood told Poole Magistrates Court last week that he believed Mrs Christoforakis was an 'active member' of the ALF. She was handed a two-year restraining order from contacting the Wood family or travelling within 200 yards of their land and an 18-month conditional discharge on top of a £400 compensation charge to the victim and £620 court costs.