Three women charged with theft of lambs from King's Sandringham Estate on trial

See more Daily Mail on Google - save us as a Preferred Source Published: 07:55 EDT, 22 September 2026 | Updated: 07:55 EDT, 22 September 2026 Three animal rights activists accused of taking lambs from the King's Sandringham Estate are due to go on trial for theft today.Rose Patterson, 37, along with Sarah Foy and Rosa Sharkey, both 26, are said to have made their way onto Appleton Farm in Norfolk where they took the three animals.The woman, who posted videos of themselves at the farm wearing pink Animal Rising T-shirts, handed themselves in to Berkshire Police the following day.Their case is being heard at Norwich Crown Court this week, where they aim to 'force large-scale changes to UK law'.The defendants were allowed to sit in the back row of the court rather than the dock as they are choosing to represent themselves.A statement from Animal Rising said: 'The defendants acknowledge deliberately rescuing and removing the lambs but have pleaded not guilty to theft.'The activists videoed the alleged incident in West Newton on May 24, 2023, with clips showing them sitting in a field with grazing sheep and carrying the lambs onto a truck. Rose Patterson, 37, along with Sarah Foy and Rosa Sharkey, both 26, are accused of theft after three lambs were taken from the King's Sandringham Estate Protest group Animal Rising released footage of the activists at Appleton Farm in West Newton, NorfolkThey then stood outside Windsor Castle with signs reading 'I rescued the King's sheep' the following day before presenting themselves at Slough police station.The lambs, which were named Sammy, Sunny and Sooty, were reportedly handed over to a third-party for safe-keeping and their current locations are unknown.So-called Open Rescue, where activists use 'non-violent and transparent' tactics to 'rescue' animals in captivity was first used by protesters in Victoria, Australia.Animal Rising, a vegan protest group that is an offshoot of climate group Extinction Rebellion, added: 'In the context of the UK, the open rescue tactic is an attempt to create strong case law foundations to give a legal basis for the rescue of animals from animal testing, farms or other industries.'The potential legal ramifications of trial outcomes could force large-scale changes to UK law.'Earlier this year, Animal Rising made legal history by securing the UK's first-ever not-guilty verdicts in an open rescue case, involving beagles taken from a breeding facility in Cambridgeshire. The trio stood outside Windsor Castle with signs reading 'I rescued the King's sheep' the following day before presenting themselves at Slough police stationThe group said Patterson, a director of Animal Rising who has a Master's in animal welfare science, ethics and law from Winchester University, Foy, who has worked at animal sanctuaries, and Sharkey, a food charity worker – who face a maximum of seven years' imprisonment if convicted - 'hope to build on that precedent'.Animal Rising previously said that 'they stand by the belief that a jury of ordinary people will take the side of care and freedom'.The organisation, formerly known as Animal Rebellion, launched in 2019 with the goals of bringing awareness to the impacts of animals farming and fishing on the environment and encouraging government-led transition towards a plant-based food system.It has been involved in a variety of civil disobedience and non-violent direct action incidents, including blockading McDonald's distribution centres in May 2021 and dairy industry sites in September 2022, disrupting the 2024 Epsom Derby and carrying out the UK's largest undercover farm investigation in 2024.The Sandringham Estate consists of 2,400 hectares of farmland, with an additional 4,000 hectares rented by tenant farmers. There are around 3,000 royal sheep present.