ANIMAL rights activist John Gill received a seven-day prison sentence yesterday for refusing to pay more than £1,000 in fines.

Gill, 51, had always said he would rather go behind bars than pay £500 in fines and costs imposed last year by Hexham magistrates for damaging 38 snares, and a further order of £520 costs, handed down when his appeal was dismissed at Durham Crown Court.

Moira Spink, defending Gill at Derwentside Magistrates' Court yesterday, said he had waged a war against snares used by gamekeepers for the past ten years.

She said: "He says he has no intention of paying whatso-ever. He has been in custody on a number of previous occasions, and on each and every one it centred on his campaign against animal snares."

Gill, of Front Street, Castleside, near Consett, County Durham, will leave his 14 cats and seven dogs behind for his short spell in jail.

After receiving his sentence, he gave a brief thumbs-up to supporters in the public gallery.