Animal rights protester wins case

There have been many protests against the Oxford animal lab

Oxford University has lost its contempt of court action against an animal rights campaigner over his failure to produce an e-mail list of subscribers.

Co-founder of Speak, Robert Cogswell, had been ordered to hand over the list but said it was outside of his control.

It followed publication of an e-mail allegedly naming a contractor - banned under a court injunction - involved in building an animal research lab.

Mr Justice King said Mr Cogswell had not wilfully breached the court order.

After construction of the laboratory in South Parks Road was halted in 2004, when contractors pulled out following a campaign by animal rights activists, Oxford University was granted an injunction.

Intimidation protection

It allows a weekly protest by named individuals and a number of groups, but otherwise bans activities within a designated exclusion zone.

The injunction also protects all those engaged in the provision of services or goods to the university from intimidation and harassment.

The university claimed that if a contractor had been named by Speak it was a breach of the injunction and demanded to know who had received the e-mail.

In October, Mr Justice Gibbs had directed Mr Cogswell to disclose a copy of the e-mail address list of their supporters in full.

'Wholly sympathetic'

But Mr Cogswell told the High Court the list was outside his control as it had been switched to the US by its data controller who lives there.

Oxford University claimed he was in contempt of the order because they had not produced a copy of the e-mail list.

In his ruling, the judge found that although Mr Cogswell knew he was ordered to disclose the list and took no step to obtain it, he had no means of effectively compelling the data controller to hand it over.

Although he was "wholly sympathetic" to the university's case, he said he could not find the required standard of proof that a wilful breach of the October order had been made out.