CSM STAFF WRITER

The victims of “Spike Stocker” recently learnt he had not just disappeared into thin air after supposedly lifting the lid on circuses including the much publicised Mary Chipperfield’s operation at Croft Farm in late 1997.

The resultant news articles after the Chipperfield trial revealed the infiltrator they knew as “Spike Stocker” was a cover name for “Terry Stocker”. Stocker disappeared into thin air after post-trial publicity was relentlessly exploited to smear circuses.

Stocker could not lie low forever.

Circuses found out just last month that “Terry Stocker” did not hang up his camera and vanish but is very much alive and kicking under his real name of Terry Hill. Terry Hill – the well-known hunt saboteur.

Below is the only picture the circus folk had of Hill, taken at Chipperfield Enterprises in the mid-nineties, this was at a time when they entrusted him with their animals. What they didn’t realise at the time was the hand gesture below is an attempt to cover his face.

How ironic that it should then be used to identify him some 20 years later as Terry Hill the hunt monitor shown below.

Of course keeping up such subterfuge is not easy. Over the years mistakes get made. Take the propaganda from Animal Defenders International (ADI), sponsors of Hill during his time at Mary Chipperfield’s. Note the picture of Trudy in her ‘sky cradle’ is credited to Terry Hill and not Terry Stocker.

Terry Hill has worked as an undercover operative for the last 30 years for various animal rights groups including LACS and ADI and most likely started his animal rights career in the late eighties at London Zoo as a bear keeper. He was made redundant when multiple animal rights campaigns raised concern over the bear’s welfare.

After London Zoo Terry Hill used his position of bear keeper to obtain a job at Shamrock farm. This is where his animal rights credentials are exposed for the first time as he films what he claims is cruelty to monkeys. The resultant footage caused outrage across the country when featured on World in Action. With video cameras owned by the public in relative infancy the resultant furore overlooked the possibility of careful editing and the fact Hill could have mischievously caused problems, then stood back filming as folk ran about clearing up the resultant mess. No prosecutions were made against the workers or owners of Shamrock farm.

The benefits of using video would become apparent to James Barrington of LACS and publicly gives away their first known link to Terry Hill.

James Barrington could not have foreseen it at the time, but that decision by LACS would be one of a number of reasons he left the organisation. What he thought would be used with honest intent was not. While he was in charge of the League they managed to film footage of a stag that appeared to have fallen which was then attacked by hounds as it lay on the ground. This was against the rules of stag hunting and the footage was shown across the nation on TV as Barrington had envisioned. After the footage was shown on TV, Janet George, the CEO of the Countryside Alliance, asked Barrington to come around to her office as she had something very important to show him. What Barrington saw sent him into a fury – fortunately a hunt supporter had videoed the exact same scene, the hounds had not attacked the stag but had ran over and around it once it had fallen.

Janet George:

“hounds ran right over it and stopped more than 100 yards further on.  Stag had wire around the antlers and tripped on it.  Hounds came back and stood right off”

“Barrington couldn’t cope with the fact that he’d been lied to – again!”

EDITOR’S NOTE: There is no firm evidence at the moment to link Terry Hill to the footage shown on TV but it proves a willingness amongst animal rights fundamentalists to corrupt evidence/footage for the greater cause.

Animal Defenders International (ADI) also realised the potential of video footage and hatched a plan to infiltrate circuses to record what they envisaged was the systemic cruelty and abuse of animals. Terry Hill was a natural choice and went in undercover. However his name was already linked to Shamrock Farm, so they gave him a cover name of “Spike Stocker”.

During the mid-nineties Hill obtained employment at Alex Lacey`s circus before moving to Chipperfield Enterprises. Terry Hill set about gaining folks’ confidence and befriended everyone on site.  All the while he was secretly filming animals attacking one another causing beast men to run in and split them up with sticks; videoing animals being confined for long periods without exercise etc. The footage was then shown on a program called “Here and Now” and made into a documentary called the “The Ugliest show on earth”.

The footage seemed biased. So the Chipperfields complained to the BSC (Broadcasting standards authority) and were backed up with 65 eye witness statements stating the animals were exercised daily. These statements were given to solicitor Malcom Clay, now deceased. This was enough to force the BSC to uphold the complaint and force the BBC into an apology. Again in 1998, after parts of the mockumentary the “ugliest show on earth” appeared on the news, some witnesses went much further and explained they had witnessed Hill deliberately mixing up animals to cause the fights, so he could film the resultant mess. The footage was carefully edited to show beast men running into a cage or netted exercise tunnel and striking out at animals for what appears to be no reason.

It also turns out the film showing animals confined were of his own making, He had gained the trust of the owners who left him in charge while they went away, it was he who confined the animals and deprived them of exercise for the purpose of his agenda. And worst of all, there are claims he allowed a lion to escape for the purpose of filming – not only putting the staff in grave danger but also endangering children on a nearby footpath.

Some of the comments from the witnesses are very revealing:

That really should have been the end of Terry Hill and his ADI antics. Had folk from Shamrock Farm known Hill was also Stocker they may have considered legal action for the ensuing 10 years of misery he caused them through constant intimidation, bullying, and threats of violence that followed Hill filming in their establishment. The campaign against them intensified over 15 months and saw a constant protest outside the gates and finally in 2000 the operation was forced to close leading to unemployment of the workforce.

So many questions now need answers.

Are those who engaged in these operations guilty of perjury? Was justice perverted?

In this fair and civilised land we should not rest until we have the answers.

Credits:

Mr Thomas Chipperfield

References:

Newspapers carrying the story of the conviction of Mary Chipperfield.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/jan/31/theobserver.uknews

https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/jan/28/helencarter

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/chipperfield-convicted-in-cruelty-case-1076678.html

ADI carried on the ruse surrounding “Terry stocker” to throw people off the scent.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/2230913.stm

“Investigator Terry Stocker adopted the name of “Spike” and inveigled his way into a job at Mary Chipperfield’s winter quarters in Hampshire.”

So the circus folk have been wandering around for decades thinking they were stitched up by a mythical “Terry Spike Stocker” who disappeared into thin air.

http://circusthetruth.blogspot.com/2014/02/adi-up-to-their-usual-monkey-business.html

http://circusthetruth.blogspot.com/2012/11/know-your-enemy-animal-defenders.html

“He returned to the farm on 21st Jan 2011 with a Mr Hill and went through to the barn and found he didn’t need to remove a bolt……………………”