AN ANTI-FUR campaigner from the North-East could have a conviction of harassing a mink farmer overturned following a court ruling yesterday.

The High Court granted second-year law student Diane Sanderson, 32, of Jesmond, Newcastle, the right to a judicial review of her conviction.

Representing herself, she asked the judges to quash the decision of Recorder Hodson, at Newcastle Crown Court, who denied her right to appeal against conviction.

The court has been ordered to hear Ms Sanderson's appeal.

She was initially charged with harassment, then acquitted by a stipendiary magistrate at Bedlington Magistrates' Court, following a peaceful protest at a mink farm in Ponteland, Northumberland.

The High Court then ruled the magistrate was wrong to acquit, and she was convicted and given a restraining order designed to end her anti-fur campaigning activities.

She appealed against her conviction but was told she was out of time.

It is this decision for which she won a judicial review yesterday.

Speaking after the High Court hearing, she said: "I am over the moon with the decision of the judges.

"Judicial review is an extremely complicated area of the law, and I feel proud to have succeeded given I conducted all the research from scratch and presented the case myself."