The sentencing of Joseph Harris for three years after pleading guilty to three charges of animal rights related criminal damage is to be welcomed. Harris is now the first person to be convicted under the Serious and Organised Crime Act, brought in by the Government last July to tackle harassment and threats from animal rights extremists - as described on the BBC News website.

What are more than a little perplexing are Harris’s justifications for his actions. Harris was apparently a doctor of molecular biology who had been working on a treatment for pancreatic cancer at Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham. His lawyers stated that his girlfriend had threatened to dump him because his research was leading him to the point where he was going to have to test his findings on animals, and that he found himself facing a moral dilemma because of his beliefs.

If one takes these surreal explanations as justification, then it’s clearly open season for anyone who doesn’t like their work or fears their lover’s moods to trash property and threaten people. If Harris didn’t like what he was doing, then there were plenty of jobs elsewhere.

Harris’s warped moral stance needs some serious attention; luckily he now has a lot of time on his hands to contemplate it.