An animal rights protester accused of taking part in a "reconnaissance raid" at a Lincolnshire rabbit farm has walked free from court after a judge stopped the case.

Manchester student Victoria Waterhouse-Taylor had admitted travelling to Highgate Farm, near Normanby-by Spital, with three other activists during the night of October 13 last year.

It was alleged all four friends had links to the campaign group Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty which listed Highgate Farm on its website as a potential target for "direct action".

But Judge Robert Alan Brown, sitting at Lincoln Crown Court, directed the jury to return a not guilty verdict on Miss Waterhouse-Taylor after ruling there was no evidence of any loss or damage to the farm.

Judge Brown said: "The farmer himself confirmed that they had suffered no damage on that occasion. He said he did not feel his company would go out of business as a result of the trespass on his land on that date.

"I am not saying this in any way to exonerate, applaud or excuse the behaviour of somebody who trespasses on another person's land, less so in camouflage in the middle of the night."

Miss Waterhouse-Taylor's former boyfriend Dean Cain (27) of King Street, Ulverston, Cumbria, has admitted conspiracy to interfere with a contractual relationship, together with Luke Steele (18) of Woodside View, Leeds and a 17-year-old boy from Urmston, Manchester, who cannot be named.

They will be sentenced at a later date.

Miss Waterhouse-Taylor (18) who was living in Eva Street, Rusholme, Manchester, while studying politics and media at City College, denied the same charge.

For more on the case, including a statement from Miss Waterhouse-Taylor following the proceedings, see Friday's Echo.